Voluntary Nonprofit Organizations and Disaster Management: Identifying the Nature of Inter-Sector Coordination and Collaboration in Disaster Service Assistance Provision

Abstract

The scope and scale of a community's service assistance demands during a disaster will exceed, typically, the capacity of any single set of governmental, private, or nonprofit sector organizations. As a result inter‐sector coordination and collaboration represents a key element in effective disaster management. Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in providing a wide range of early response assistance and mass care services when disasters occur. Here, we investigate the particular ways in which nonprofit organizations engaged in inter‐sector coordination and collaboration during a major disaster, Superstorm Sandy. We do so in order to build on the somewhat limited prior empirical literature accounting for the specific nature of nonprofits' disaster service provision efforts. Our analysis offers several contributions to existing literature: it demonstrates the scope of disaster‐related services provided, it outlines the key qualities of inter‐sector coordination and collaboration actions, and it identifies the way in which the nonprofit sector's early phase relief actions might be connected later to longer term disaster recovery efforts.

Information Technology, Mutual Trust, Flexibility, Agility, Adaptability: Understanding Their Linkages and Impact on Humanitarian Supply Chain Management Performance

“…These results also indicate that the organizations need to improve on stakeholders’ communication outside their teams during emergency situations. Several studies (Eller, Gerber, & Branch, ; Guo & Kapucu, ; Kabra, Ramesh, & Arshinder, ; Kabra & Ramesh, ; Raju & Becker, ) have reported the need for joint working among the actors such as local community, police, aid agencies, relief organizations, emergency medical service providers and the government. Hence, regular communication, coordination and collaboration among these diverse stakeholders is necessary to improve the disaster response (Robinson, ).…”

The Varieties of Nonprofit Organizations and Local Hazard Mitigation Efforts

“…The whole community approach explicitly highlights NPOs as integral partners for governments in disaster management activities (FEMA, 2011;Kapucu, 2015). By representing different issues, agendas, interests, and populations of a community, varieties of NPOs have engaged in different parts of the whole cycle of disaster management (Eller et al, 2015;Heilbrun & Gray, 2001). NPOs have been active in providing emergency relief and response services in multiple arenas such as mass care (e.g., sheltering, first aid, distribution of goods/supplies), emergency assistance (e.g., evacuation, support for locating family members), housing (e.g., assistance for rent, home repair, loans, and so forth) (Meriläinen, 2020), and human services (e.g., food stamps, medical, counseling, unemployment insurance, legal services) (Eller et al, 2015;Miyazawa & Kikuchi, 2021).…”

“…Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) play key roles in disaster context (Eller et al, 2015;Gajewski et al, 2011;Syal et al, 2021). NPOs have consistently provided disaster response services and recovery assistance including clean up, debris removal, data collection, mass feeding, mental health counseling, rebuilding and repair, and recovery planning (Gajewski et al, 2011;Gibbons, 2007;Hwang & Joo, 2021;Luna, 2001;Meriläinen, 2020;Tierney et al, 2001).…”

Disaster Response After Extreme Events in Taiwan: The Influence of Formal Institutions on Inter‐Organizational Interaction

“…Disaster response systems are systems of collective action composed of diverse organizations from different sectors and jurisdictions that are designed to achieve a common goal (Comfort, 1999;Eller, Gerber, & Branch, 2015). Research suggests that the performance of a disaster response system is related to its capacity to facilitate collective action and build a common operating picture in the face of events that disrupt normal operating conditions (Comfort & Haase, 2006;Comfort, Oh, Ertan, & Scheinert, 2010;Huder, 2012).…”