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Nonprofit organizations have the potential to influence public health by filling voids not filled by government or private organizations. Here we investigate whether the presence of health-related nonprofit organizations at the local community level helps to improve community-level obesity. This study used a time-series design using a random effects model to determine whether the entrance or exits of health nonprofits at the county level was associated with lower obesity rates in the US one and two years following the entrance or departures of nonprofits. The effect was small but significant in urban areas, with a smaller effect in rural areas. Our findings suggest that the presence of health nonprofits is associated with positive health outcomes, in this case obesity. The plausibility may be explained through the increased role nonprofits play in fostering social capital and increased promotion of health-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article integrates parallel literatures about the determinants of redistribution across place. Using regression-based path analysis, we explore how tax burden mediates the relationship between political conditions and charitable contributions. Our analysis indicates that counties with a higher proportion of people voting Republican report higher charitable contributions, and tax burden partially mediates this relationship. However, the effect of political ideology on charitable contributions is nonlinear. As the proportion voting Republican in non-Republican-dominated counties increases, the predicted levels of charitable giving actually decreases. In contrast, as the proportion voting Republican increases in Republican-dominated counties, charitable contributions increase. Higher levels of political competition decrease charitable giving, again with partial mediation by tax burden. We also find that the "crowding in" effect of lower tax burdens on charitable giving only partially compensates for the loss of public revenue. Ultimately, total levels of redistribution—both private and government—are higher in Democratic-leaning counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite popular rhetoric concerning the benefits of volunteerism for public and nonprofit organizations, the use and management of volunteers to assist in the delivery of services is uneven: some organizations rely heavily on volunteer labor for this purpose, while others circumscribe volunteer contributions or eschew volunteer involvement altogether. This article introduces eight dimensions of volunteer involvement—four involving organizational decisions and four regarding volunteers’ decisions—that make up the overall scope of volunteer involvement in an organization. Based on a review of the literature, the article presents a conceptual framework and several research propositions concerning how organizational characteristics, volunteer management, and environmental factors affect the overall scope of volunteer involvement in an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a voluminous literature addresses organizational change, employee stress, and organizational behavior, we have little understanding of employees’ responses to being assigned the role and responsibilities of a volunteer manager. Because many public and nonprofit organizations seek to incorporate more volunteers—especially during times of fiscal stress—employees’ responses to an influx of volunteers and additional volunteer management responsibilities can affect organizational performance. We use data from a case study at a large public library system to illustrate how role theory helps advance our understanding of these responsibilities in a human resource context. Our findings suggest that role perceptions, expectations, and conflict all inform the effectiveness and dynamics of managing important unpaid human resources: volunteers. We discuss the organizational implications of inadvertent volunteer managers—employees assigned to the volunteer manager role without prior training and experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the current economic conditions and the subsequent increased pressure on nonprofit organizations to collaborate, many nonprofit organizations are developing and conducting cross-sector workplace giving campaigns to increase philanthropic activity. Although some scholars have focused on the implications of such activities for for-profit organizations, little research has been conducted to better understand employee-level giving behaviors in charitable workplace campaigns. This longitudinal study focuses on workplace givers and the impact of individual-level factors on actual donation amounts in two annual workplace campaigns at a large public university from 2001 to 2008. Results show that salary consistently predicts giving amounts across campaigns; length of service, however, only predicts giving amounts in one campaign. Being promoted and receiving tenure led to employees donating less, whereas being promoted while already tenured led to employees donating more. We close the article with a discussion of the managerial implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit organizations face numerous challenges in balancing mission and nonmission pressures. These competing demands create tensions that must be managed if nonprofits are to balance the light and the dark aspects of their activities. In addition to government regulation, the authors examine other sources of "rules" used to navigate light/dark tensions in the nonprofit sector. Drawing on one form of nonprofit activity—charitable bingo—this article uses neoinstitutional theories to develop a conceptual framework of how government and nongovemment actors actively generate rules to manage these tensions. Their work with charitable bingo demonstrates that nonprofit organizations are not simply passive recipients of nonnegotiable state-imposed rules. On the contrary, the authors demonstrate that individuals, nonprofits, and state actors develop boundary, position, choice, and scope rules to manage mission tensions in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits that use rules to manage tensions appear better equipped to shape their environments by influencing their regulatory environments and how their missions are portrayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite portrayals of gambling as a social vice, charitable gaming is big business in the United States and globally. While many nonprofit organizations sponsor charitable gaming events, such as bingo nights for their members and communities, to raise both friends and funds for their organizations, charitable gaming operations receive little attention from researchers. This article focuses on charitable bingo and contrasts bingo's often folkloric background with the contemporary realities of charitable gaming. Our exploratory analysis offers reasons that bingo deserves study and calls researchers' and practitioners' attention to the scope and some of the implications of bingo operations. We focus on the characteristics of nonprofit organizations reporting bingo revenue in Indiana. Our findings suggest that while some nonprofits may be using bingo to raise much-needed funds or provide a social and recreational outlet for organization or community members, bingo is an uncertain financial pursuit for most organizations. We use a descriptive case study of bingo in Indiana to explore and illustrate the issues and questions raised in the article and to set up an agenda for future research on charitable bingo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elinor “Lin” Ostrom, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, spent her career developing ideas and tools to address the concept of governance—what Oliver Williamson describes as the “provision of good order and workable arrangements.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Action (NVA) scholars are similarly concerned with good order and workable arrangements but draw on different, if not more disparate, scholarly traditions. This special issue sheds light on the promise that integration of the tools developed by Ostrom and NVA scholarship holds. In this article, including its primer appendix, we provide a broad introduction to the tools created by Lin and her collaborators at The Ostrom Workshop (the “Workshop”) in the interest of exploring their utility for NVA scholars’ central questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]