IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v24y2005i3p543-558.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What do nonprofit organizations seek? (And why should policymakers care?)

Author

Listed:
  • Arthur C. Brooks

    (Syracuse University)

Abstract

The objectives of nonprofit managers are not immediately apparent. Indeed, nonprofits may seek to maximize their level of service or their budgets, or they may have undefined or unstable objectives. This paper presents a theoretical model of managerial objectives that yields testable hypotheses, which I test using 2001 data on 190,000 American nonprofits. While there is substantial variation between different types of nonprofits, they generally approach a service maximization objective, but maintain fundraising budgets that are insufficient to meet this objective. These findings have significant implications for policy and nonprofit management. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

Suggested Citation

  • Arthur C. Brooks, 2005. "What do nonprofit organizations seek? (And why should policymakers care?)," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 543-558.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:24:y:2005:i:3:p:543-558
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.20114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.20114
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.20114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anup Malani & Tomas Philipson & Guy David, 2003. "Theories of Firm Behavior in the Nonprofit Sector. A Synthesis and Empirical Evaluation," NBER Chapters, in: The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations, pages 181-216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Henry Hansmann, 1981. "Nonprofit Enterprise in the Performing Arts," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 341-361, Autumn.
    3. Carolyn J. Heinrich, 2000. "Organizational form and performance: An empirical investigation of nonprofit and for-profit job-training service providers," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 233-261.
    4. Weisbrod, Burton A. & Dominguez, Nestor D., 1986. "Demand for collective goods in private nonprofit markets: Can fundraising expenditures help overcome free-rider behavior?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 83-96, June.
    5. Cragg, John G, 1971. "Some Statistical Models for Limited Dependent Variables with Application to the Demand for Durable Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 39(5), pages 829-844, September.
    6. Susan Rose-Ackerman, 1982. "Charitable Giving and “Excessive†Fundraising," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(2), pages 193-212.
    7. Khanna, Jyoti & Posnett, John & Sandler, Todd, 1995. "Charity donations in the UK: New evidence based on panel data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 257-272, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Neha Sharma & Sripad K. Devalkar & Milind G. Sohoni, 2021. "Payment for Results: Funding Non‐Profit Operations," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(6), pages 1686-1702, June.
    2. Vladislav Valentinov, 2009. "The German Gemeinwirtschaftslehre: Implications for modern nonprofit economics," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(2), pages 186-195, June.
    3. Valentinov, Vladislav, 2009. "Managerial nonpecuniary preferences in the market failure theories of nonprofit organisation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36(1/2), pages 81-92.
    4. Christoph Starke, 2010. "Serving the Many or Serving the Most Needy?," FEMM Working Papers 100002, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    5. Laura E. Grant, 2021. "Does the introduction of ratings reduce giving? Evidence from charities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(3), pages 978-995, July.
    6. Christoph Starke, 2012. "Serving the many or serving the most needy?," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 365-386, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James Andreoni & A Abigail Payne, 2001. "Government Grants to Private Charities: Do They Crowd-Out Giving or Fundraising?," Public Economics 0111001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Okten, Cagla & Weisbrod, Burton A., 2000. "Determinants of donations in private nonprofit markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 255-272, February.
    3. Fuminori Toyasaki & Tina Wakolbinger, 2014. "Impacts of earmarked private donations for disaster fundraising," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 221(1), pages 427-447, October.
    4. Elias Asproudis, 2011. "Revisiting environmental groups and members’ behaviour: budget, size and (im)pure altruism," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 13(2), pages 139-156, June.
    5. Richer, Jerrell, 1995. "Green Giving: An Analysis of Contributions to Major U.S. Environmental Groups," RFF Working Paper Series dp-95-39, Resources for the Future.
    6. Julie Hewitt & Daniel Brown, 2000. "Agency Costs in Environmental Not-For-Profits," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 163-183, April.
    7. Olsen, Jan Abel & Eidem, Jan Inge, 2003. "An inquiry into the size of health charities: the case of Norwegian patient organisations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 457-466, September.
    8. Paskalev, Zdravko & Yildirim, Huseyin, 2017. "A theory of outsourced fundraising: Why dollars turn into “Pennies for Charity”," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-18.
    9. Tinkelman, Daniel, 2004. "Using nonprofit organization-level financial data to infer managers' fund-raising strategies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2181-2192, August.
    10. Dennis Coates, 1998. "Public Sector Crowding Out of Private Provision of Public Goods: the Influence of Differences in Production Costs," Public Finance Review, , vol. 26(5), pages 460-479, September.
    11. Scharf, Kimberley & Perroni, Carlo & Pogrebna, Ganna & Sandford, Sarah, 2014. "Are Donors Afraid of Charities' Core Costs? Scale Economies in Non-profit Provision," CEPR Discussion Papers 10179, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Jens Prüfer, 2011. "Competition And Mergers Among Nonprofits," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 69-92.
    13. Jérǒme BALLET, 1994. "L'Entreprise À Vocation Sociale," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 623-640, October.
    14. Meer, Jonathan, 2014. "Effects of the price of charitable giving: Evidence from an online crowdfunding platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 113-124.
    15. Vincent C.H. Chua & Chung Ming Wong, 2003. "The Role of United Charities in Fundraising: The Case of Singapore," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 433-464, September.
    16. José Miguel Tirado-Beltrán & Iluminada Fuertes-Fuertes & J. David Cabedo, 2020. "Donor Reaction to Non-Financial Information Covering Social Projects in Nonprofits: A Spanish Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-17, December.
    17. James Andreoni & Abigail Payne, 2007. "Crowding out Both Sides of the Philanthropy Market: Evidence from a Panel of Charities," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001769, UCLA Department of Economics.
    18. Cornelli, Francesca & Buraschi, Andrea, 2002. "Donations," CEPR Discussion Papers 3488, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Andreoni, James & Payne, A. Abigail, 2011. "Is crowding out due entirely to fundraising? Evidence from a panel of charities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 334-343.
    20. James Andreoni & A. Abigail Payne, 2003. "Do Government Grants to Private Charities Crowd Out Giving or Fund-raising?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 792-812, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:24:y:2005:i:3:p:543-558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.