Although fundraising organizations in the third sector have gone through a progressive professionalization process, it remains unclear whether this development has led to any financial benefits. This article focuses on the question of whether or not it pays off for fundraising organizations to invest in professionalization. The data for this study come from 165 organizations representing 45 percent of the Swiss fundraising market. We first propose the term “organizational fundraising capability” as a new construct for measuring the degree of professionalization and rationalization in fundraising management. We then analyze its relationship to overall net revenue from donations as well as the growth of net revenue from donations. Our analysis indicates that, in addition to organizational size measured by total revenue, revenue share from donations, and expansion strategy, fundraising capability makes an important contribution to explaining both an institution's net revenue from fundraising and the level of increase in net donations. The consequences for the development of professionalization and rationalization in fundraising are discussed.
This article deals with the question of whether regional cultural competence centers foster the diversity of cultural expressions and how the objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Convention on Cultural Diversity are implemented. By introducing the Convention on Cultural Diversity, the conditions of regional cultural policy governance, and the idea of regional cultural competence centers, a framework for evaluation is outlined. The evaluation of four regional cultural competence centers in the Swiss Central Region shows that fostering cultural diversity is complex and has many different approaches and effects. The final discussion concludes that principles such as “interculturality,” “freedom,” and “access for all” under the Convention on Cultural Diversity can promote a diversity of cultural expressions but that these criteria have to be set from outside—for example, by public funding institutions—so that regional actors implement them.
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