The importance of new forms of capital in nonprofit organizations: A case study of the Fafe delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the extent to which new forms of capital are noticed by different members of nonprofit organizations (directors, employees, and volunteers) and valued as a factor of organizational capacity.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey research methodology, the authors studied a nonprofit institution – a delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross located in Fafe, a city in northern Portugal, by giving a questionnaire to all its members.
Findings
The respondents revealed that the existence of other forms of capital (in addition to financial capital) is recognized and valued and that human capital as a whole is particularly relevant to the fulfillment of the Fafe Delegation of Portuguese Red Cross’ mission.
Originality/value
This is the first study on the perceptions of human capital, social capital and financial capital in a Portuguese nonprofit organization.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the attention of an anonymous referee of the International Journal of Social Economics on a previous version of this research. Remaining errors are authors’ exclusive ones. This work was carried out within the funding with COMPETE reference nº POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006683, with the FCT/MEC's (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.) financial support through national funding and by the ERDF through the Operational Programme on “Competitiveness and Internationalization – COMPETE 2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement”.
Citation
Mourão, P., Pereira, T. and Moreira, M.C. (2017), "The importance of new forms of capital in nonprofit organizations: A case study of the Fafe delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 44 No. 7, pp. 846-868. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-09-2015-0240
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited