Understanding Location and Density: A Spatial Analysis of Cuyahoga County Ohio’s Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

Theories of density dependence emphasize the role of competition and legitimation in organizational life. However, agglomerative configurations and ecological processes vary substantially over space, resulting in heterogeneous sub-populations which organizations select into by choosing locations. Using geostatistical data constructed from form-990 submissions and the American Community Survey, this article studies the role of location and density in the operations of nonprofits using generalized additive models. After controlling for organizational and neighborhood features, the results show substantial variation in the effect of location on total and contributed revenue. Nonprofit density is positively associated with the location effects across a range of distances. The results suggest organizations benefit greatly from locating in high-density regions and may be most sensitive to variation in density in their immediate proximity. The study emphasizes location dependence through the importance of location and the intra-county distribution of nonprofits.

International charitable connections: Variation in the countries of operation of overseas charities

“…More recent, theories have focused on the importance of these country-level social, political, and economic realities and networks as key drivers of the emergence of charity sectors overall (Salamon and Anheier, 1998;Bebbington and Kothari, 2006). Therefore, there is a strong theoretical basis to expect unevenness in the emergence and operating locations of charitable organisations, and many empirical studies have focused on this in a domestic context (e.g., McDonnell et al, 2020;Mayer, 2023).…”