Search results

The DataArts dataset, although it covers mostly arts organizations, has emerged as an alternative source of data for nonprofit research. Most existing studies use the IRS 990 data, which is considered a reliable source for research. We evaluate the reliability of the DataArts dataset by comparing the consistency of the values reported to the DataArts Cultural Data Profile (CDP) and to the 990 forms. We: 1) examine correlations between the same measures in each dataset, 2) assess the cumulative distribution of differences between the two datasets and 3) compare the results of the same empirical model conducted with the DataArts dataset and 990 data, respectively. We conclude that the DataArts dataset is an adequate and reliable source of financial and performance information, but researchers should be aware of a few limitations.

This paper aims to contribute to the extant literature in this field by examining nonprofit organizations’ fraud reporting compliance using logistic regression and decision tree induction algorithms.

This study used the data from 428 nonprofit organizations during 2009-2015 period, and analyzed 21 individual measures (obtained from these organizations’ Internal Revenue Service Form990 filings) using logistic regression and decision tree induction algorithms, to study the governance characteristics and fraud reporting.

The study found evidence that compliance with the law, board of directors’ independence, federal audit and using independent accountants to compile and review financial statements are the most prevailing factors affecting the odds of nonprofit organizations experiencing fraud reported as an asset diversion.

The argument associated with using governance to reduce the chances of fraud has been a popular topic in industry and academia but unfortunately has limited empirical evidence in the literature, especially when it relates to nonprofits. This study contributes to the literature in this respect.

Several nonprofit associations have implemented assessment and certification programs intending to produce institutional improvement for member organizations. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a foundation, this study develops and tests an extension of TAM with organizations that chose to participate in one such program, (the Louisiana Standards for Excellence organizational assessment), and with those that did not. The results of this quantitative study largely validate TAM and indicate that dimensions such as usefulness, access barriers related to resources, attitudes, executive director pro-activity and behavioral intent all influence the decision to pursue voluntary certification. These findings advance current theory and contribute to the foundation for future research aimed at understanding user-adoption behavior in a general sense, and more specifically, in the nonprofit sector.

Although operating reserves can aid nonprofit organizations in alleviating periods of fiscal stress, they are not widely used. This study examines organizational factors that impact the level of operating reserves in nonprofit organizations. It also explores the relationship of operating reserves with organizational demographics and financial health variables using a six-year (1998-2003) unbalanced panel regression model containing 460,437 observations. Findings demonstrate a positive relationship between operating reserves and administration ratio, profit margin, operating margin, and organization age. Conversely, the size of operating reserves is negatively related to leverage ratio, donations, and organization size. Revenue diversification, however, shows a mixed relationship with operating reserves among different types of nonprofit indicating complexity in risk-reducing strategy. This study contributes to understanding factors relevant to the presence, or absence, of nonprofit operating reserves.

Organizations are communicating with the public about their thoughts and behaviors relevant to the environment via social networking sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore for-profit and nonprofit organizations' Twitter messages to understand their environment-related messages and their influences on the publics' responses.

This study conducted a content analysis adopting four message classification systems: environmental message orientation, message specificity, message framing, and environmental issue. Guided by attribution theory, this study also explored how the organization's environmental messages influence social media (Twitter) user responses, likes, retweets, and replies.

The analysis showed that for-profits' messages tend to discuss their green products and manufacturing processes with specific numeric evidence, while nonprofits are disposed to describe a severely degraded environment. In addition, the study revealed that tweets yield a high number of likes and replies when the organizations are for-profits and the messages emphasize green products.

The findings of this study showed that the green message categorization systems are applicable to the social media context. But, this study focused on Twitter only. Future studies need to examine various social media platforms.

The study findings recommend communication practitioners use substantive green messages highlighting actual pro-environmental performances. Also, practitioners might need to make a linkage between the discussed environmental issue and the organization (e.g. a water issue by a wildlife-related nonprofit, an energy issue by a home appliance manufacturer, an air pollution issue by a bicycle company). In addition, regarding the message specificity, infographics can be present specific information that audiences can readily understand because it is described visually.

Scholars investigated environmental messages in advertising and cautioned that environmental messages that are not substantive or specific can cause audiences to perceive the messages as greenwashing. However, these previous studies focused on conventional media, and they have not been replicated in the age of social media. Thus, it is important to explore the current status of organizational environmental messages on social media.

Little is known about the variations in service co-creation on social media, despite the resource integrating capabilities and co-creator roles afforded by these platforms. The gap is even more troubling in the nonprofit sector, where leveraging public interaction on social media is prevalent and vital to charitable and philanthropic endeavors. Arguably, such interaction is embedded in resource integrating activities leading to nonprofit service co-creation. This paper reports the forms, dimensions or service co-creation measures enabled by social media use in the nonprofits' sector.

The authors conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. First, the authors interviewed 19 social media managers in education, health and social service nonprofit organizations to identify the varieties in service co-creation realized. Second, the authors surveyed 73 nonprofit organizations on social media and gathered 267 useable responses, which were used to analyze and validate the identified forms of service co-creation.

The authors found that nonprofit organizations realize up to seven forms of service co-creation using social media. These include co-ideating to tweak service ideas, co-diagnosing social needs and problems, co-assessing service events, co-transforming services to targeted communities, co-advocating for community and service reach, co-resourcing in service delivery, and co-experiencing through a pool of diverse service experiences.

This study develops a reliable and valid multidimensional measure for nonprofit service co-creation enabled by social media platforms. Theoretically, this study offers a nonprofit service co-creation model to drive nuanced explanatory research and service co-creation perspectives in other contexts and engagement platforms. Managerially, this research illustrates the variations in service co-creation, which inform the strategic value of social media to nonprofits and will assist nonprofit practitioners in planning and evaluating their service co-creation outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how performance management systems in nonprofit organizations are influenced by their funding sources. It explains how resources motivate organizations to diversify their strategies with attended performance management systems.

It adopts a qualitative case study approach involving semi-structured interviews with key informants in a nonprofit organization to understand the evolving nature of performance management systems associated with different funding sources.

The findings suggest that the case study organization changed its revenue base along with its performance management systems to satisfy the reporting and accountability requirements of different funding sources. Despite external funding sources detailing different restrictions and requirements, the overall performance management system was able to manage these different expectations.

This study is based on a single case study, and its findings need to be interpreted with care, as there are differences between nonprofit organizations because they differ in their environments, services and funding.

This paper contributes to extant knowledge on how organizational performance management is influenced by funding sources, providing insights at the operational and governance levels.

Nonprofit performance measurement is receiving increasing academic and practitioner attention, but the design of nonprofit measurement systems has received limited consideration. This is in contrast to the well‐established body of knowledge that focuses on performance measurement in private and public sector organisations. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether this body of knowledge can be used to inform the design of nonprofit performance measurement systems.

A case study approach was taken to examine the performance measurement practices used in six nonprofit organisations and their associated funders and regulators. A total of 24 managers from 18 organisations took part in the study.

The study found underdeveloped and resource intensive performance measurement systems in the majority of organisations that were examined. The performance measurement literature from the private and public sectors advocates the development of relevant, balanced, integrated, strategic and improvement‐oriented performance measurement systems; concepts that have received limited consideration in the nonprofit literature. This research found that performance measurement system design principles developed for the private and public sectors were applicable to the nonprofit sector.

Whilst a range of stakeholders was included in the research, further work is required to validate the applicability of the findings to the diverse nonprofit sector. Nevertheless, given the dearth of operations management focused research on nonprofit performance measurement systems this study makes a useful contribution.

The study presents empirical evidence of the myriad criteria and processes that are used to measure nonprofit performance. The paper shows that current measurement practice is detracting from the performance of nonprofit organisations.

Despite the perceived uniqueness of the nonprofit sector, this paper shows that learning from the private and public sectors can be used to inform good practice in nonprofits. As relatively little research has been done in this area, the findings make a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of crisis communication and management along with its inclusion into the field and practice of emergency management. This paper also discusses the inclusion of nonprofit organizations and the need for these organizations to engage in crisis communication planning and strategy creation to address the diverse and numerous crises that nonprofits are at risk of experiencing.

This paper utilizes a systematic literature review of crisis communication planning tools and resources focused on nonprofit organizations to derive best practices and policy needs.

The resources analyzed provide foundational insight for nonprofit organizations to proactively develop plans and strategies during noncrisis periods to support their organization when a crisis occurs.

Limitations of this paper include limited academic research and practical resources related to nonprofit organizations and crisis communication planning. As such, several potential avenues for empirical research are discussed.

This paper provides considerations for nonprofit organizations engaging in crisis communication planning and aspects leaders need to partake in to reduce or eliminate the risk of facing an operational or reputational crisis.

This paper highlights the critical need to generate a crisis communication plan due to the diverse crises nonprofit organizations face and their connection to the emergency management structure. Understanding the crisis and utilizing a crisis communication plan allows nonprofit organizations a way to strategically mitigate the impact of a crisis while also providing essential services to their respective communities and maintain their overall stability.

This paper is unique in its analysis of crisis communication planning resources and creation of a planning framework to assist nonprofit organizations in their planning efforts.

The balanced scorecard (BSC) and intellectual capital (IC) concepts are two strategic management methods that help to identify and elevate organizations' intellectual resources in the knowledge economy. However, very little research has examined the usefulness of the BSC and IC concept in nonprofit organizations. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper uses a critical analysis of current literature in relation to BSC and IC concepts within the social service nonprofit context.

The findings suggest that BSC is less effective in social service nonprofit organizations (SSNPOs) because the model's strategy, cause‐and‐effect relationships and its four linked perspectives are incompatible to the unique social service nonprofit environment. IC, however, can be harnessed to co‐ordinate with the values and core character of SSNPOs.

The paper contributes a new dimension to the body of literature; raising critical questions as to the usefulness of the BSC in SSNPOs and theoretically arguing that IC is an alternative strategic management framework in the social service nonprofit sub‐sector. The increased awareness of the IC concept in SSNPOs, as a result of this paper, likely generates further research from both nonprofit practitioners and scholars.

The paper is considered as a starting point and serves as a milestone in applying IC as a strategic management conceptual framework in the nonprofit sector. Also, the paper informs nonprofit leaders that IC is a more appropriate strategic management concept in the nonprofit sector.