No abstract

The impact of the global recession has served to increase resource pressures on voluntary organizations in many social service sectors, serving to constrain the choices that organizational leaders can make in the face of changing resource niches. Not all organizational leaders face the same set of viable choices in the face of both changing demands from funding bodies and highly dynamic resource niches. Drawing on theories of organizational change, it is possible to identify three key factors that will serve to limit the tactics that voluntary organizations can employ: niche-level dynamics, niche density, and the presence of organizational champions. These three factors are illustrated through an analysis of the effects of the economic recession in Northern Ireland on two subsectors: community development and youth-serving organizations. We conclude with a call for greater theoretical and empirical development of the resource niche as the appropriate unit of analysis.Discussions of global recession have created a sense of unease, if not outright panic, in the minds of citizens throughout the world. The rapid nature of the economic decline and a sense of having no control over one's own destiny has created a unique situation

Human service nonprofit organizations have increasingly been called upon to produce public services as governments have sought to devolve responsibility to private organizations. Just as stress tests have used accounting indicators to determine the distress of banks, this article uses measures of financial distress (Shumway 2001; Trussel and Greenlee 2004) to understand what types of human service nonprofits are facing difficulties. Joining NCCS Core Files with spatial data from the American Community Survey, I find that there is a positive relationship between financial distress and minority population. The article enters the debate as to how cutting public funding for human services may harm vulnerable communities.

PurposeThe paper explores the emergence of the “big data regime” and the disruption that it is causing for the real estate industry. The paper defines big data and illustrates how an inductive, big data approach can help improve decision-making.Design/methodology/approachThe paper demonstrates how big data can support inductive reasoning that can lead to enhanced real estate decisions. To help readers understand the dynamics and drivers of the big data regime shift, an extensive list of hyperlinks is included.FindingsThe paper concludes that it is possible to blend traditional and non-traditional data into a unified data environment to support enhanced decision-making. Through the application of design thinking, the paper illustrates how socially responsible development can be targeted to under-served urban areas and helps serve residents and the communities in which they live.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper demonstrates how big data can be harnessed to support decision-making using a hypothetical project. The paper does not present advanced analytics but focuses aggregating disparate longitudinal data that could support such analysis in future research.Practical implicationsThe paper focuses on the US market, but the methodology can be extended to other markets where big data is increasingly available.Social implicationsThe paper illustrates how big data analytics can be used to help serve the needs of marginalized residents and tenants, as well as blighted areas.Originality/valueThis paper documents the big data movement and demonstrates how non-traditional data can support decision-making.

Third-sector organizations provide essential services, but not all types of organizations operate equally well given different intensities of public problems. This article argues for maps that would help social service funding bodies. Those maps would include three elements: (1) a measure of service demanded by a community, (2) data on the full range of organizations able to supply those services, and (3) a chart that identifies those organizations that provide services at different intensities of need. By providing information about the supply of organizations in a community, with measures of demand for services, state funding bodies, foundations, and individual philanthropists can make informed decisions about where to allocate funds. An ideal map is illustrated by using the case of the Holy Cross Dispute (2001), whereby a host of voluntary sector organizations provided a voice for residents in this divided Belfast community. The result is a call for more intensive mapping exercises of voluntary sector social service provision.Résumé Les organisations du troisième secteur fournissent des services essentiels; pourtant toutes ces organisations n'opèrent pas de façon égale en fonction de l'intensité des problèmes publics. Cet article préconise l'utilisation de cartes qui viendraient assister les organismes de financement des services sociaux. Ces cartes comporteraient trois éléments: (1) le service demandé par la communauté, (2) des informations sur l'ensemble des organisations en mesure d'apporter ces services, et (3) un graphique qui identifie les organisations fournissant ces services à différents niveaux d'intensité des besoins. En donnant des informations sur l'apport de ces organisations fait à la communauté, avec notamment des valeurs portant sur la demande de ces services, les organismes de financement nationaux, les fondations et les bienfaiteurs individuels peuvent prendre des décisions sur l'allocation des B. Never ressources en toute connaissance de cause. Une carte modèle est illustrée avec l'exemple du conflit de l'école Holy Cross (2001), grâce à laquelle un grand nombre d'associations avaient permis aux résidents de cette communauté divisée de Belfast de s'exprimer. Le résultat est la demande pour étendre l'utilisation des cartes en matière de distribution des services sociaux associatifs.Zusammenfassung Dritte-Sektor-Organisationen erbringen Grunddienstleistungen, aber nicht alle Typen von Organisationen operieren gleich gut aufgrund der unterschiedlichen Intensität von öffentlichen Problemen. Dieser Artikel argumentiert für Karten, die Trägern von Sozialdiensten helfen würden. Diese Karten würden drei Elemente beinhalten: (1) die Dienste, die in einer Gemeinschaft gefragt sind, (2) die Daten aller Organisationen, die diese Dienste leisten können, und (3) eine Ü bersicht, die diejenigen Organisationen identifiziert, die Dienste auf verschiedenen Stufen von Not leisten. Indem Informationen über die vorhandenen Organisationen in einer Gemeinschaft, mit Maßgaben für nachgefragte Dienste, zur Verfügun...