The article describes political and advocacy activity in nonprofit human service organizations for children, elderly people, women, and people with disabilities. On the whole, the level of their political activity was found to be moderate, as perceived by the directors of the organizations. The main findings reveal a significant positive correlation between advocacy and political activity in nonprofit organizations and their perceived influence on setting the public agenda. Analysis of the findings indicates that the larger the number of volunteers in the organization, the greater the organization's political influence. In addition, it was found that the more dependent the organizations were on funding from local authorities, the lower the level of advocacy and political activity. The effectiveness of strategies used to attain political influence was also analyzed. The most effective strategy was exerting pressure on decision makers, both on the national and local levels.

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Policy advocacy is widely regarded as an eminent feature of nonprofit organizations’ activities, allowing them to represent their constituencies. The article presents a literature review of research on nonprofit policy advocacy that has been published over the last decade, focusing on advocacy by nonprofit human service organizations (NPHSOs) and its unique characteristics and contributions. The review focuses on several key topics, including: the definitions and origins of the term advocacy and its current uses in studies related to NPHSOs; the current situation and prevalence of NPHSO advocacy activities; organizational and structural variables as they relate to policy advocacy; dependence on external funding sources and policy advocacy; strategies, tactics, modes of operation, and the effectiveness of NPHSO policy advocacy. The article presents and discusses the implications of this research and suggests directions for future research.

This paper presents and analyzes the relationships between organizational properties (centralization of authority, formalization, workers' autonomy, coordination, control, empowerment, and training) and organizational effectiveness in three types of nonprofit human service organizations: community centers, home care organizations, and residential boarding schools. The findings indicate that the distinctive properties of each type of organization, in addition to presenting a comparative analysis of the factors that contribute toward attainment of organizational effectiveness. It discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for management of nonprofit organizations. This paper describes and analyzes the relationships between organizational properties and organizational effectiveness in three types of nonprofit organizations that provide personal, social, and community services. Home care organizations, residential boarding schools, and community centers.

This article describes and analyzes leadership styles and leadership change in human and community service organizations. Based on the assumption that leadership styles must adapt to changing environments, four case studies of human and community service organizations are presented in an effort to determine the appropriate leadership style for each of the organizations described at different stages of the organizational life cycle. Emphasis is placed on the need to adapt leadership styles to the unique circumstances that prevail in the organization, based on a theoretical model that integrates different perspectives on leadership roles. The main argument is that in order to be effective, leaders must develop awareness of and sensitivity to changing situations and organizational constraints. Specifically, they should know when to adopt a task‐oriented style versus a people‐oriented style and when to adopt an internal versus an external orientation