Toward Nonprofit Organization Reform in the Voluntary Spirit: Lessons from the Internet

Abstract

This article identifies two models of nonprofit organization roles: the economic model, which emphasizes business-like methods, and the voluntary spirit model, which emphasizes participation and membership. Highly visible, professional nonprofit organizations must constantly struggle with the extent to which they are to emphasize their role as efficient and competitive economic actors or their role as institutions important to our democracy. After years of shifting toward the economic model, professional nonprofits may be ripe for reform. Simultaneously, they are confronting and engaging with the Internet. This article draws on examples of health-based citizen cyber-organizations to derive lessons for how professional nonprofit organizations can recapture their voluntary spirit generally and places an emphasis on participation and membership. Also derived are specific lessons on how professional nonprofits can use cyber-strategies to do so.

Managerialism and Beyond: Discourses of Civil Society Organization and Their Governance Implications

“…For sampling, we started with a literature review of different ways of organizing, drawing on sources from sociology (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006;Polletta, 2002;Weber, 1968), organization studies (Grandori & Furnari, 2008;Meyer, 2005;Mintzberg, 1980;Parker, Fournier, & Reedy, 2007;Thornton, 2004), as well as on research specifically on CSOs (Alexander & Weiner, 1998;Brainard & Siplon, 2004;Eikenberry, 2009). On this basis, we compiled a very rough and provisional list of around ten potential discourses of organization, thus ensuring that our research was connected to previous work (cf .…”

Advancing Social Change by Synergizing Nonprofit Organizations with Common Missions

“…To have a high impact, all sectors of a society must be mobilized -government, businesses, nonprofits, and public (Grant, Crutchfield, 2007). Collaboration can be attained through varied models using cyber strategies (Brainard, Siplon, 2004), overhead minimization (Mitchell 2013), operational reviews (Reider, 2001), improving grant seeking (Zweibel, Golden, 2007), dismantling barriers between organizations (Nambisan, 2009) or capping fostering public-private partnerships (Grubbs, 2000).…”

The Diffusion of Social Media in Nonprofit Organizations

“…2002Salamon and Geller, 2007;Salamon, Sokolowsky and List, 2003;Santos, 2003). However, the adoption of information technology processes like Enterprise Resource Programs (ERPs) has been slow, in part, due to the cost of implementation, including expertise and cost of infrastructure (Brainard and Siplon, 2004;Salamon, 1992Salamon, , 1995Salamon, , 2005Salamon and Geller, 2007). Unlike the traditional information technology solutions, social media use has grown exponentially in the last decade and become a popular communication medium.…”

“…Nonprofits develop a relationship with donors like public sector agencies and departments as well as other major private donors to commandeer the resources required for the survival of the organization (Young, 2012). Nonprofits develop a relationship with federal agencies through grants and other forms of sustained financial support (Brainard and Siplon, 2004;Provan et. al., 1980).…”

“…Social media requires minimal hardware and software to adopt, and several organizations already have the structures in place, including internet connection, desktop, and mobile devices as well as internet connectivity (Mao, 2001;McConnell, 2009). Moreover, with the mission and goals to engage communities, connect with donors and create a pool of followers, social media fits into the public relations activities of nonprofit organizations (Bortree, and Seltzer, 2009;Brainard and Siplon, 2004). Thus, compatibility should have a positive influence on the adoption and use of social media in nonprofit organizations.…”