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Despite the importance of fundraising to the nonprofit sector there has been surprisingly little research on fundraising as a revenue source in Australia. Research that has been conducted both here and internationally has focused on the cost of fundraising — the proportion of fundraising expenses to total fundraising revenue, and fundraising performance — the absolute or relative amount of money raised by organisations via fundraising. This paper examines why some nonprofit organisations are more dependent on fundraising as a source of revenue than others. The paper applies multivariate techniques to examine the influence that three broad sets of factors: organisational; revenue generation model; and fundraising approach, have on what we term ‘fundraising dependency’ — the percentage of a nonprofit organisations total revenue that is derived from fundraising activities. It finds that fundraising dependency is associated with a range of organisational characteristics (e.g. size, geographical scope of the organisation and tax status); alternative forms of revenue generation (e.g. reliance on government funding and commercial venturing) and fundraising approach (e.g. whether professional fundraising staff are employed, the use of volunteer fundraisers and the number of fundraising practices used). The results support taking a multidimensional approach to understanding fundraising dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and the academic performance of children is well established in sociological research. Another important dimension is the factors that may influence educational outcomes within low SES families. This paper presents new data from a sample of over 3000 students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to estimate the extent of socioeconomic, family, individual and contextual factors on school educational performance. Results obtained using binomial logistic regression techniques indicate that gender, unexplained absences, parental educational attainment, housing type, ethnicity and student age are all statistically significant variables and predictors of academic performance. In contrast, family structure, the main source of family income and geographical location do not significantly predict outcomes in school performance once other factors are controlled for. The findings support the notion that the 'social' and the 'economic' components of the socioeconomic status equation have distinct and separate influences on educational outcomes. While financial assistance to schools and families in need is important, policies and programmes that also assist low-income parents in providing appropriate psychological and educational support for their children should also be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that clientelism can provide a more useful and positive framework for understanding ethnic politics in Australia. Influence of British culture on political institutions in Australia; Ethnic participation in the political system; Views on political culture and ethnicity in the country.

Examines the phases of the political participation of ethnic minorities in Australia. Participation of immigrants from non-English speaking background (NESB) in political parties; Nature and extent of particularized contact between immigrants from NESB; Details on the depoliticization of immigrants.

Although discussion of the politics of immigration has generally been at a macro-level, the politics of immigration also occurs at the micro-level, in particular in electorates with a high proportion of immigrant citizens. The nature of constituency work in such `ethnic electorates' has, however, been ignored by political scientists in Australia. This article presents findings from the first in-depth study of an MP's case-work in one `ethnic electorate'. They suggest that the majority of the MP's clients were constituents from non-English speaking backgrounds [NESB] who visit their MP with regards to immigration issues. The article also examines how constituents from NESB were aware of their MP's role and service and the MP's response to his constituents. Overall, findings suggest that analyses of the politics of immigration must also examine the micro-levels of politics and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]