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This article investigates the benefits and costs to nonprofit organizations emanating from the adoption of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (2002). The act was intended to stem financial malfeasance in the for‐profit sector; nevertheless the article finds that about half the surveyed nonprofits adopted provisions of the act and experienced effects in proportion to the level of adoption. About one in four of the nonprofits attributed benefits of better financial controls and reduced risk of accounting fraud to the adoption of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act. More than one‐third of the nonprofit organizations reported increased fees for external audit, and about 15 percent cited “reallocation of resources from program to administrative expenses.” This article discusses the unintended positive and negative effects of public policy on nonprofit organizations.

This study based on Kazakhstan nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is the first to address the important issue of the relationship between volunteer management and volunteer program effectiveness in an international setting. Our inquiry is informed by findings of US scholars that show that the adoption of a recommended set of volunteer management practices is related to the level of effectiveness achieved with volunteer involvement in NPOs. The paper advances a path model to explain volunteer program effectiveness, with volunteer management practices the crucial intermediate variable. Based on data collected in a survey of Almaty (Kazakhstan) NPOs in 2004, the empirical analysis yields considerable support for a path model that focuses on both the adoption of these practices and the attainment of program effectiveness. Given the heterogeneity of NPOs, not every organization can be expected to benefit from the adoption of the recommended practices. Nevertheless, results suggest that they offer one workable means for successfully integrating volunteers.

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U.S. and European scholars have established the association between work in government and public service motivation (PSM). Yet, few studies measure PSM among master of public administration (MPA) students and link it to their intention to work in government. For the first time in Russia, the study tests the association between culturally determined measures of prosocial motives of Russian MPA students and their intention to work for government upon graduation. Three theoretical frameworks help structuring this research: public administration, political trust, and volunteering. The data in this study confirm that Russian MPA students with prosocial motives tend to choose work in government. We explain this phenomenon by deriving the prosocial motive theoretical perspective from the larger concept of PSM and from the theory of political trust. In addition, the study finds that formal and informal volunteering is not related to choosing work in government. The implications of these findings are discussed.