Can Nonprofit Capacity Be Measured?

Despard, Mathieu R.

doi:10.1177/0899764016661425

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…These policy areas are populated substantially by nonprofit organizations and the expectations held within policymaking and regulative control thus critically affect nonprofit strategies for operating in them (Bryson, 2018). Therefore, promoting innovation is placed in between the usual focus on civicness and market orientation (Kim, 2016) and could be seen as a new “capacity” to be developed (Despard, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Policies of Social Innovation: A Cross-National Analysis

Krlev

Einarsson

Wijkström

et al. 2019

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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This article deals with the policy discourse on social innovation at the European Union (EU) level as well as across nine European countries. We perform an exploratory analysis of relevant policy documents focusing on articulated policy authority, suggested actors, and key outcomes of social innovation. We also conduct an explanatory testing of the applicability of the varieties of capitalism as a traditional innovation classification system to social innovation. We find that the policy discourse across Europe lacks systemization and that EU agendas are only incompletely replicated at the individual country level. We also find that social innovation policies largely defy the principles governing traditional innovation policy regimes, which necessitates new or revised classification frames.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Policies of Social Innovation: A Cross-National Analysis

Krlev

Einarsson

Wijkström

et al. 2019

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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“…Some definitions of capacity are drawn from resource management. Most recently, Despard () refers to capacity as the “resources, skills, and functions a nonprofit organization needs to fulfill its mission across multiple domains” (608). Despard draws this understanding of capacity from previous scholarship (e.g., Andrews and Boyne ; Light ; McKinsey and Company ; Millesen, Carman, and Bies ).…”

Section: Defining and Measuring Nonprofit Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existing instruments have problems that we seek to remedy in this research. First, all but one (Despard ) of the current tools have not been empirically validated; there is no evidence that these instruments reliably measure what they claim to measure. Second, nonprofits lack a self‐evaluation tool that can also be compared to other organizational findings for the purpose of improving organizational learning.…”

Section: Defining and Measuring Nonprofit Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nonprofit Capacities Instrument

Shumate¹,

Cooper²,

Pilny

et al. 2017

Nonprofit Mgmnt & Ldrshp

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Nonprofits are guided by internal efforts and external mandates to build capacity. However, scholars and grant makers are hampered by varied definitions of the concept, competing but untested models, and the lack of a reliable and valid measure. This research defines nonprofit capacity as the processes, practices, and people that the organization has at its disposal that enable it to produce, perform, or deploy resources to achieve its mission. An inductive-confirmatory two-study approach introduces and validates the Nonprofit Capacities Instrument, a 45-item measure of eight nonprofit capacities derived from existing instruments. The capacities are (1) financial management, (2) adaptive capacity, (3) strategic planning, (4) external communication, (5) board leadership, (6) operational capacity, (7) mission orientation, and (8) staff management. Intriguingly, this research demonstrates that nonprofit capacity is not a singular or second-order concept, but better described in its plural form, nonprofit capacities.CAPACITY-BUILDING INITIATIVES ARE common across nonprofit organizations, with numerous organizations and programs designed to improve capacity (e.g., Americorp CTC Vista, National Council of Nonprofi ts). In spite of this signifi cant investment, there is no unifying defi nition or model of nonprofi t capacity (Christensen and Gazley 2008 ). Moreover, both researchers and funders lack the ability to compare similar organizations ' capacity or the relative eff ectiveness of diff erent capacity-building initiatives.The purpose of this research is to introduce the Nonprofit Capacities Instrument, a selfreport measure of capacity that allows researchers, foundations, and practitioners to compare the capacities of nonprofit organizations using a standard metric. This research makes two contributions. First, we introduce a model of nonprofit capacity and demonstrate that it should be understood as interrelated nonprofit capacities , not as a second-order multidimensional construct (i.e., a single concept composed of multiple subdimensions claimed by existing conceptual models). Second and relatedly, this research answers Brown ' s ( 2012 ) call for a self-guided instrument that would allow for practitioners to assess their capacity without the need for external facilitation.

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“…Organizational capacity is increasingly important because government and philanthropic funders, clients, and the public exert pressure on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to more effectively tackle social problems (Despard, 2017; Minzner et al, 2014). Hence, NGO capacity has garnered considerable interest among nonprofit scholars around the globe (e.g., AbouAssi et al, 2016; Doherty et al, 2014; Suárez & Marshall, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this research gap, scholars have attempted to develop NGO capacity instruments in recent years. However, existing NGO capacity instruments are either unvalidated (Doherty et al, 2014; Minzner et al, 2014) or developed based on data from a particular type of NGOs in the United States (Despard, 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing and Validating a Capacity Instrument for Chinese and U.S. NGOs

Shumate

2019

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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Capacity-building initiatives are popular among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide. In response to a lack of valid and reliable capacity measures for NGOs working on various social issues, Shumate and colleagues developed an 8-dimension, 45-item NGO capacities instrument, based on data from U.S. NGOs. However, the proliferation of international research on NGO capacity raises questions about the degree to which such an instrument equally applies in other countries. To allow meaningful comparisons of NGO capacities across countries, we examine the measurement equivalence of this NGO capacity instrument across a matched sample of Chinese ( N = 119) and U.S. ( N = 150) NGOs. Findings suggest a new NGO capacity instrument, which comprises seven factors and 28 items and better accounts for the capacity of both Chinese and U.S. NGOs. Based on the new instrument, a series of comparative analyses highlight the influence of institutional factors on NGO capacities.

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Can Nonprofit Capacity Be Measured?

Cited by 36 publications

References 54 publications

The Policies of Social Innovation: A Cross-National Analysis

The Policies of Social Innovation: A Cross-National Analysis

The Nonprofit Capacities Instrument

Developing and Validating a Capacity Instrument for Chinese and U.S. NGOs

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