Judge a Nonprofit by the Partners it Keeps: How Does Cross-Sector Partnership Disclosure Influence Public Evaluations of the Nonprofit?

Abstract

It would be impossible for me to complete this dissertation and my doctoral degree without support, guidance, trust, and caring from a great number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr.Hyejoon Rim, for her incredible patience, generosity, and support throughout these years.Dr. Rim is not only a talented scholar, but more importantly, a scholar with kindness and compassion. She often reminded me that what is more important than the outcome is the process; we conduct social science research because we have the curiosity, and can we care about others and the society. Taking on the advising responsibilities as an assistant professor is already a challenging task and dealing with an advisee like me is a double burden. Dr. Rim has showed me the highest standard of being an advisor, and I wish to pay it forward in my future career.I also owe many thanks to my co-advisor, Dr. Jisu Huh, for her continuous encouragement during my doctoral studies. I enjoyed every class and personal conversation with Dr. Huh. The most important things I learned from her are to respect different, even conflicting, scholarly ideas and approaches; and always assume other people have good intentions. I think these lessons have not only helped me to develop as a responsible scholar but also to be a better human being. I also want to thank Dr. Amy O'Connor for inspiring my research interest in cross-sector partnerships and helping me appreciate the value and beauty of qualitative research. I would not have made it this far without her tough love. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. David Knoke for serving on my committee and sharing insightful feedback on my work. Dr. listener, a problem solver, a role model for how to have a strong work ethic, and, perhaps most importantly, a good housekeeper all the time -well done, thank you! iv Dedication To my grandmother, Rong Shen. I wish you were here to be proud of me.

Crowdfunding for social ventures

“…(Olsen et al., 2001;Waters, 2011) All ventures rely on resources to sustain themselves and create value (Barney, 1995;Drucker, 1985;Greene and Brown, 1997). In the nonprofit fundraising literature, it has been highly emphasized that the internal resources a venture possesses including its overall experience in the field and reputation represented by its age, team size and its leadership signal the legitimacy of an organization (Dong and Rim, 2022;Steinberg, 2003). As prior literature indicates, demonstrating legitimacy is critical for a venture to receive support and resources from an external audience (Fisher et al, 2017).…”