Under a third-party government regime, NPOs are largely funded to implement social policies and have open lines of communication with policy makers. When performing their advocacy role, questions may, however, arise about whether NPOs actually strive for policy change to structurally improve the lives of their clients or rather aim to secure these organizational benefits. Based upon a case study of 6 youth care organizations in Belgium, this article aims to highlight how such NPOs deliberately try to capture, process and translate a wide array of service delivering experiences within their organization. As such, their advocacy practice is constantly nourished by the micro-level of direct interaction with clients and the meso-level of internal debate amongst the NPOs’ staff. Using the peak of the iceberg as a metaphor, we argue it is important to focus on these more ‘invisible’ parts in which the advocacy claims of service delivering NPOs must be anchored.

This study tests how changes in social background (homeownership status and employment status) and changes in household structure (marital status, number of children, and volunteering behaviors of other household members) influence an individual’s volunteering decision. We use a complex dataset from the US Current Population Survey Volunteer Supplements from 2002 to 2015. We captured the short-term “shock” effect of the changes in life circumstances on the changes in volunteering status; different factors influence start and stop in volunteerism in different ways. A person is more likely to start volunteering when the person became unemployed, when other household members increased their volunteering time, or got married, within a one-year period. Meanwhile, a person who experiences changes in employment, homeownership, or marital status, or has an increase in the number of children is more likely to stop volunteering. Based on the findings, we provide recommendations for those who are interested in volunteer management strategies.

It is widely recognized that nonprofit organizations provide benefits to society such as goods and services that promote social well-being, activities fostering social inclusion and cohesion, and community spaces and opportunities for minority interests. To understand these particular civic benefits and the contributions of nonprofit organizations, we use the metaphor of the ‘civic footprint.’ To develop a model of a nonprofit organizations’ civic footprint, this study utilized a cross-sectional research design and surveyed a random sample of nonprofit organizations in Ontario, Canada, to assess the extent to which they promote civic engagement activities. Using principal axis factoring, a three-factor model was found to adequately operationalize the extent of a nonprofit’s civic footprint. Factors included efforts that bring community members together, promote education and awareness, and involve community members in programs and services (such as volunteering and donating). This research provides a valid and reliable measure of a nonprofit’s civic footprint that can be utilized by nonprofit organizations to increase their level of civic engagement.

What happens at convenings held by community-based civil society organizations and how do they influence organizational outcomes? Although ethnographies provide details about organizations’ internal dynamics, they offer limited insights into the distribution of those dynamics and their impact on outcomes. This article describes systematic social observation and explains how we adapted this method to CSOs for collecting data on multiple convenings from several organizations. To demonstrate the method’s viability, we digitized our SSO tool and used it in a pilot study of three CSOs in Indianapolis to collect observational data from 99 convenings. We illustrate the value of SSO for studying CSOs by presenting distributions of interaction styles and cross-demographic interaction across organizations. We note how such data could be combined with survey and administrative data to analyze the impact of CSOs internal dynamics on organizational outcomes. We conclude by discussing the broader utility and limitations of the SSO method for research on CSOs and the third sector.

Research has shown a higher level of pro-environmental values and attitudes for women (vs. men), but discrepancies remain regarding pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs). Thus, women tend to adopt more PEBs than men in the private sphere, whereas no differences are observed in the public sphere. This paper aims to investigate whether women’s engagement in the public sphere is linked to social expectations. To address this issue, we tested messages based on social norms with 117 men and 124 women; their purpose was to engage the participants in PEBs in public sphere. Our results show a significant difference between men and women with the injunctive norm messages, but none with the control condition and descriptive social norm messages. These results validate our hypothesis that women engage in PEBs in the public sphere due to social expectations. We discuss this result using the literature on gender and PEBs and question the role of nudges using social norms; they may increase involvement, but they also increase feelings of guilt. We finally propose future research avenues and implications for citizens and non-profit organizations.

Conducting a study on a sample of 303 participants from the Novi Sad Voluntary Service we set out to validate the Volunteer Satisfaction Index (VSI) in the cultural context of the two European titles—Youth 2019 and Culture 2021. A battery of instruments was used for research purposes, Voluntary Satisfaction Inventory, Voluntary Function Inventory and Helping Attitude Scale. Our study is currently the only one in Serbia that evaluated volunteer satisfaction. The results support a volunteer model based on altruistic values, recognized and accepted, identifying volunteer benefits of personal gain and relationship with the organization. Since the Serbian version of the VSI scale was confirmed on the example of the Novi Sad Voluntary Service sample and has shown satisfactory psychometric properties, it can be used for the purpose of further monitoring and evaluating volunteer satisfaction, examining other factors on which volunteer satisfaction is based.

Philanthropic endeavors are a form of institutionalized collective action that enhances a community’s capacity to address community needs and interests. Despite studies investigating the complex relationships between local economies, social capital, and local philanthropy, much remains unknown concerning the interaction between diverse local economic structures, social capital, and local philanthropy. Therefore, we explore whether local economies and social capital affect a community’s capacity to mobilize collective resources for two distinct forms of local philanthropy: elite and social welfare-oriented. Using a quantitative analysis, we empirically examine these relationships using a dataset covering three specified years spanning 3,036 US counties. Findings suggest that the diversity of local economic structures play a moderating role in facilitating the effect of social capital on local philanthropic activities aimed at satisfying local community demands and interests. The results illustrate important policy implications concerning the diversification of economic resources for local policymakers and community leaders.

This research explores accountability to beneficiaries within Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Conceptualised as “downward”, this direction of accountability is of increasing research interest, given that beneficiaries are impacted by the mission of a CSO. However, the concept of downward accountability is used almost unanimously across CSO forms which cover a diverse array of organisational qualities, structures, missions, and people. This suggests downward accountability to be an encompassing concept, amenable to diversity among CSO forms; but is this the case? Is downward accountability the same across CSO forms and if not, how does the CSO form impact downward accountability? To respond to these questions, this research examines downward accountability across and within three CSO forms in Australia: public philanthropic foundation, service provider, and cooperative. Findings from 48 interviews suggest while there are clear differences in downward accountability relationships, mechanisms, and motivations across the three CSO forms examined, the impact of these different CSO forms upon the conception of downward accountability is minimal, where downward accountability displays similar characteristics across these forms. The insights gained contribute to problematising the concept of downward accountability, thereby providing a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of a complex phenomenon.

Informal volunteering is seen as an important indicator of social relations and community life. We therefore investigate the impact of various socialization practices on informal volunteering, being small helping behaviours outside of organizations for people outside the household. From theoretical notions on socialization, we hypothesize that experiencing extensive prosocial socialization practices promotes informal volunteering. We examine socialization processes of both modelling and encouragement and consider two socializing agents: parents and partners. We test our expectations employing the sixth wave of the Family Survey Dutch Population (N = 2464) that included unique measures on socialization as well as informal volunteering and holds important control variables. Our results indicated that parental modelling, partner modelling and partner encouragement were all positively related to informal volunteering, but that parental encouragement was not significantly related to informal volunteering. Our paper, thus, underscores that socialization practices are relevant in nurturing social relations and community life.

Ethnography is a rich research tradition originating from sociocultural anthropology that aims to vividly represent cultural meaning through fieldwork and thick description. Ethnographic fieldwork is known for unearthing surprises, and ethnographers are often convinced that, had they used another approach, they would have been unable to explain fully what was going on in the research setting. Ethnography in nonprofit studies is increasing, but sparse. This article argues that introducing more tales of the nonprofit field could deepen the analysis of how nonprofit organizing works, bridge the nonprofit research–practice divide, challenge the Western ethnocentricity of nonprofit studies, bring the sector’s periphery to the forefront and enhance nonprofit management education. However, to benefit from ethnographic work, the nonprofit field must embrace alternative norms of composition and rigor. The starting point is conversation and community among nonprofit ethnographers to foster such work.

Extensive variable-centered research guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has provided insights into volunteers’ motivations in nonprofit and voluntary sports clubs. However, volunteers may have multiple reasons for engaging in volunteer work. By adopting a person-centered approach, the present study aimed to identify volunteers’ motivational profiles in sports clubs based on combinations of different motivational regulations as distinguished within SDT. Six profiles were retained, which differed in terms of volunteers’ need-based experiences, job satisfaction, work effort, and turnover intentions. Specifically, the findings pointed out the crucial role of relatively high levels of autonomous motivation for volunteers’ need satisfaction, job satisfaction, and work effort while relatively high levels of controlled motivation and amotivation were associated with need frustration and turnover intentions. Practical suggestions on how leaders can optimize their organization’s motivational environment are provided. This study urges researchers to develop motivational profiles in other nonprofit contexts.

We examine the relationship between likelihood to volunteer and a range of human capital, social capital, religious capital and ubuntu variables in South Africa seven years after the official end of apartheid. Using the 2001 World Values Survey we find that education is positively associated with volunteering, but employment has a negative association with volunteering when including controls for wealth and income. Religiosity has a strong positive association with volunteering and a broad base, cutting across the socio-economic and racial divides. This suggest that religious congregations in collaboration with other sectors could be a vehicle to increase access to volunteer opportunities for those who lack the status to take part in other volunteering activities.

This study focuses on the role of individuals’ social networks and motivations in predicting their intention to participate socially. In an online survey, university students (N = 263) estimated the likelihood of their future participation in several types of civic and political activity and evaluated their possible motivations. Participants also indicated approximately how many of their social contacts were already involved in each type of participation, with this measure being used to calculate their degree centrality in social networks. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that motivations and social contacts were significant predictors of intention to engage in most forms of civic and political activity studied. Social contacts were more decisive in predicting political than civic participation. We also found that personal motivations mediated the relationship between social contacts and intention to participate in all cases except joining a political party. We discuss the results in light of their theoretical and practical implications.

It is widely believed that civic associations are capable to produce social capital, here understood as an individual asset resulting from relations of mutual support and assistance. Although hardly anybody denies that socializing is widespread in many civic associations, it still remains to be shown that this socializing provides a genuine commitment to support. This paper explores the relationship between involvement in civic organizations and social support. The data analysed come from a nation-wide survey “Organized Sport and Social Capital—Revisited” (OSSCAR) representing the adult population in Germany. Findings show that participation in civic associations is associated with higher levels of social support. This effect is stronger for active participants and weaker for passive members. Path analyses further indicate that this effect is mediated by a person’s sociability orientations as well as her commitment to prosocial values. These findings help providing a more nuanced understanding of mechanisms of social capital formation in civic associations.

This paper presents a critical analysis of present approaches to studying not-for-profit performance reporting, and implications of research in this area. Focusing on three approaches: content analysis of publicly available performance reporting; quantitative analysis of financial data; and (rarer) mixed/other methods, we consider the impact of these on our knowledge of not-for-profit performance reporting, highlighting gaps and suggesting further research questions and methods. Our analysis demonstrates the important role of regulation in determining the research data available, and the impact of this on research methods. We inter-connect the methods, results and prevailing view of performance reporting in different jurisdictions and argue that this reporting has the potential to influence both charity practices and regulators’ actions. We call for further research in this interesting area. Contribution is made to the methodological literature on not-for-profits, and ongoing international conversations on regulating not-for-profit reporting.

This article seeks to analyze the resilience of arts and cultural nonprofit organizations in France during the Covid-19 crisis. A broad survey and multiple logistic regressions highlight the resources availability, the crisis impact, the NPOs’ needs and the reforms they conducted during the first French lockdown. This study shows that the resilience of these NPOs must be differentiated between activity continuity and organizational persistence. Resilience in culture and the arts is specific, based on reforms, and requires special support from partners.

In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However, only limited research has considered how the new financial landscape affects the work being carried out by these organizations. This article presents a quantitative analysis of the relationship between financing and the number of volunteers. The data material consists of panel data on revenue streams to nationwide, social, non-profit organizations in Denmark. The analysis reveals a strong, positive relationship between both value-driven general revenues and the organizations’ equity in relation to the number of volunteers. Conversely, targeted and means-driven investments do not have any significant correlation with the number of volunteers. Overall, the findings point to the fact that more volunteers can be attracted through forms of financing that strengthen the stability and organizational capacity of an organization as well as its ability to independently organize the work to be done.

This research analyzes how gender equality influences the participation of European senior citizens in a range of volunteering activities (Social Awareness, Professional and Political, Education, and Religion). The main contribution is the simultaneous consideration of different levels of data aggregation: individual, national and welfare system. This allows conclusions to be drawn on the effects of variables linked to sociodemographic characteristics, gender equality and welfare systems. The empirical estimation utilised microdata from the World Values Survey (2005/09 and 2010/14) and the United Nations Development Programme. Results suggest that the European senior citizens appear to believe that they are more equal than the official statistics of their countries indicate. Men are more likely to participate in professional and education activities; women are more likely to be involved in religious organisations. Welfare systems influence volunteering behaviours. The promotion of macro-policies for gender equality could be important for increasing participation in non-profit organisations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the viability and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations compelling them to make tough choices. Evidence suggests that different wordings or message settings may affect people’s decisions when presenting equivalent outcome information with positive or negative framing. Nevertheless, there have been few attempts to assess how procedural fairness and framing effects shape nonprofit managers’ reactions to job layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey experiment, we explore whether framing effects—by affecting perceived outcome favorability—and procedural fairness interact to influence nonprofit managers’ trust and support for their organizations. The findings of this 2 × 2 between-participants experimental design indicated that only when procedural fairness was relatively low did nonprofit managers react more favorably in the positive frame (keep) than in the negative frame (layoff) condition. This study adds to our understanding of how the pandemic impacts nonprofit managers, including their commitment to continue working in the sector, and has practical implications for nonprofit organizations that manage resilience in a crisis.

This study explores scholars’ approaches to measure performance in nonprofit human service organizations. While acknowledging that each human service organization’s unique mission makes it challenging to create a generalizable model across all nonprofit human service organizations, we propose three multidimensional frameworks for performance measurement derived from survey and qualitative data of organizations in this subsector. The frameworks will help researchers and practitioners rethink, adapt to, and reflect on the implications of their current methods of program performance measurement. While contributing to the academic discussion on the measurements used to evaluate human service organizations’ program performance, our research also offers important insights for researchers, managers, marketers, board members, and funders to use moving forward.