Many analysts consider 2008 to have been “NGO year zero” for China, as the relief and reconstruction process following the Wenchuan earthquake witnessed a significant surge in NGO activity. This study traces the development trajectory of three NGOs in Y City over the eight years since the area was severely struck by the Wenchuan earthquake. These NGOs actively assisted in the post-disaster recovery. By the time the reconstruction was complete, they had translated their distinct resources, development plans, and relationships with local government into different approaches to helping the local community. This study proposes an interactive model that captures the nuanced dynamics over time on both sides of the NGO–local government relationships. The model focuses on variations in NGOs’ orientations and bargaining power. This yields a matrix with four elementary types of relationship: “parent-–child,” “mercantile,” “predator–prey,” and alienated relationships. These interaction patterns and their effects are clearly seen in the case studies.

Strengthening the work of national voluntary sport organisations (VSOs) is of strategic importance as they are considered custodians of their sport and have been entrusted with its governance, management of significant public funds and provision of services to a vast network of clubs and millions of participants. Using a mixed method approach, the study examined how VSOs in the UK and Russia leveraged the 2012 London and 2014 Sochi Olympics for capacity building. The political framing of the Games as a leverageable resource stimulated VSOs’ engagement, but it was more on a tactical than strategic basis. Three main leveraging processes were employed by VSOs including aligning organisational objectives with the Games’ strategic visions, using structured Olympic programmes and teaming up with a development partner. VSOs used the Games to enhance their organisational capacity in three areas of staff qualifications, organisational learning and performance management and created public value.

Corporate philanthropy in India is burgeoning due to a fast growing economy, rise in the number of billionaires, and the recent introduction of legislation that mandates spending 2 % of company profits on corporate social responsibility. Through analysis of key historical and anthropological texts, we argue that ‘business philanthropy has a long and honorable history in India’ (Sidel, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 12(2):171–180, 172, 2001), and explain this with reference to Indian giving practices from Hindu, Mughal (Muslim), British Raj, and Gandhian traditions. We then move into a review of the emerging field of literature on corporate philanthropy, to explore how these traditions synthesized with contemporary global business and economic practices to create a distinct form of Indian corporate philanthropy. We necessarily also include an overview of its salient critiques. This will be of interest to those concerned with Indian philanthropy and of culturally specific scholarship of philanthropy.

For social enterprises (SEs), non-earned income remains an attractive and important form of financing. Yet, many of these funds are donated without serious and collective deliberation about the overall impact of these transfers on the composition of the sector. Various authors suggest that the recent professionalization of the broader third sector and the use of accounting frameworks that favour short-term measurable results—a trend which SEs exemplify—are having an impact on who and what gets funded. We test this hypothesis by investigating whether the distribution of non-earned income to SEs located in three different Canadian provinces can be explained by donor preferences for the following: (i) culture and arts-related social goods; (ii) SEs that are located in wealthier neighbourhoods; and (iii) SEs that are ‘visible’ beyond their locality. The paper briefly discusses the generalizability of the results and concludes with policy recommendations that emphasize the limits of SEs in achieving a core goal of welfare provision.

Israeli environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) are assessed in light of Resource Mobilization Theory, introducing a new method for dividing ENGOs according to strategic orientation. Based on a national survey, 85 groups are categorized as consensus ENGOs that seek understanding aim at finding common grounds, or as conflict ENGOs working “outside the system.” Results show that conflict ENGOs are more grassroots in orientation and consensus ENGOs are more professionalized. Conflict ENGOs operate primarily in local arenas. Consensus ENGOs appear more stable, with larger annual budgets and paid staff, but with fewer registered members. Consensus ENGOs enjoy a wider variety of income sources; receive more funding from government, foreign, and private donations; and have a broader range of self-generated income sources. Conflict ENGOs depend more on membership fees. Both groups are highly dependent on foundation grants. In general, greater resources are associated with consensus activity than among organizations utilizing conflict tactics.

Governments are increasingly eager to involve citizens in co-production of services. They are seen as a substitution or a supplementary resource in service delivery. Citizens’ involvement relies heavily on their motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic drivers) to partake in co-production. Taking note from prior debate in the volunteerism literature, the article ties volunteer motivation to the process of co-production and citizen–state interaction. Here the state has contrastive options to motivate citizens’ behavior varying between compulsion and coercion. The question is how states’ increased engagement and interaction with volunteers affects volunteer motivation and free choice, the main characteristic of volunteerism. To exemplify this, we analyze the motivation behind state engagement in different forms of co-production: volunteering in rescue and police services and in a volunteer program for the unemployed in Estonia. We conclude that using citizens in co-production is rife with controversies that influence the very nature of volunteerism.

Building on an analytical framework of agent-based institutionalization, this qualitative study uses narrative accounts to explore a historical evolution of Japanese philanthropy and corporate philanthropy from the 1970s to 1990s. Using primary data, such as interviews with key actors and archival resources, as well as secondary and publication data, I examine the process of how Japanese philanthropy and corporate philanthropy progressed simultaneously and how the American concept of philanthropy was integrated into different cultural contexts and emerged as the Japanese concept of philanthropy, firansoropii. This study also reveals that the three-decade process of institutionalizing Japanese philanthropy was driven by Japanese institutional actors who bridged the philanthropic, political, and economic boundaries between Japan and the United States.

Despite the need for interorganizational collaboration within a humanitarian setting in recent years, there are a considerable number of challenges to efficient collaboration among humanitarian organizations (HOs) operating after natural disasters. Up to this point, scholars have explored the inhibitors and drivers of collaboration in a number of papers and reports that have primarily served to provide a list of factors that influence collaboration within a disaster relief context. Since each list is partial or limited, we conducted this meta-study to advance and frame knowledge on collaboration among HOs, to trace the gap of the literature and to initiate further studies on this topic. Our systematic literature review proposes a categorization of the factors influencing collaboration among HOs. It contains three clusters of factors: (1) contextual factors; (2) interorganizational factors; and (3) inner-organizational factors. In the last section, we elaborate on opportunities for future research on collaboration among HOs.

The social entrepreneurship discourse in Germany has become more prominent at a time when the deeply rooted corporatist traditions of social provision have come under pressure for marketization. This article examines the potential role of “social entrepreneurs” in the institutionally established German welfare state. The article analyzes the opportunities and constraints that new players face. Drawing on survey data and case studies in the areas of elderly care and advancement of children with immigrant background, the analysis retraces the structure and diffusion of social entrepreneurial projects. It concludes that the simple transfer of the social entrepreneurship model is unlikely. The analysis suggests that successful social ventures in Germany adapt the notion of social entrepreneurship to prevalent institutional realities. In the context of more encompassing social services, dense decentralized networks, and different cultures of philanthropism, new players have a complementary role that stimulates rather than dominates the process of social innovation.

This article analyses the role of organizations’ ideological affiliation in shaping information networks within civil society and in granting access to the political sphere. It investigates whether the Catholic and Leftist affiliation of organizations impacts in the city of Turin (Italy) and Kielce (Poland). Applying different social network analysis techniques, the article finds that in both cities there is a tendency towards preferring similar partners. However, while the influence of affiliation is relevant to predict the access to policy making in Turin, in Kielce, this influence is mediated by the actor’s centrality in the social sphere. In both cities, networks are characterized by the higher centrality of Catholic organizations, which also translate in a greater involvement in the political sphere. Twenty-five years after the end of the cold war, past-affiliation is still a strong predictor of political involvement and impacts on the shape of local governance structure.

Some nonprofit economists tend to see nonprofit commercialization as a moral dilemma because commercial activities may secure organizational survival at the cost of undermining the mission orientation. The present paper argues that this type of moral framing of the commercialization debate is hardly adequate for the transitional context of the Czech nonprofit sector which is still struggling to develop its distinct institutional identity. Given that financial independence is part of this identity, commercial activities help nonprofits to emancipate themselves from the state that used to be paternalistic in the past. On this basis, the paper underscores the institutional nature of the commercialization phenomenon in the Czech Republic. Commercialization decisions of Czech nonprofit managers are shown to be heavily influenced by the current institutional and regulatory environment that explicitly promotes nonprofit self-financing initiatives. If nonprofit commercialization is understood as an institutional phenomenon, then its moral significance is best captured in terms of institutional ethics rather than individual ethics of nonprofit managers which seems to be predominant in the Anglo-Saxon literature. After presenting the recent empirical findings on self-financing, the paper concludes by stressing the interrelation between the semantic and ethical aspects of the commercialization concept.

Alongside the ongoing renewal process of the Finnish welfare state, the role of the citizens is also revisited. So far the attention has mainly focused on how the responsibility for service provision is shared between the public sector and the service users, while the role of public services as a part of the democratic system has been more or less ignored. Based on the results from a 3-year participatory action research project called KAMPA, this article will discuss if the development of co-production in the context of public welfare services shows the way forward toward a new kind of society where democracy is an inseparable part of the structures and procedures of the service provision. The data gathered during the project (textual material, interviews, notes from meetings, and observation diaries) are analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that while legislation and official policies strongly highlight the participation of citizens and service users, there are still many obstacles to overcome at both the attitudinal and practical level. The development of co-production and arenas of a new kind of democracy requires continuity in the attempts and recognition of the achievements, but it also has the potential to demonstrate the way in which a new more lively democratic society can come true in practice.

Understanding what older people learn from their civic participation is of critical importance both for individuals and organisations. This link has been neglected in prior research, and the evidence across diverse cultural contexts is particularly limited. However, the political context of older people’s life experiences and participation is important in their participation. The intent of the present study is to explore the learnings experienced by older people through participation in seniors’ interest organisations, across Australia and Spain. Participants included 52 active members of political organisations focused on issues for older people. A questionnaire was used for data collection; participants’ responses to an open-ended question regarding what they have learnt from their participation in seniors’ interest organisations are analysed here. Participants’ answers were subjected to a multi-stage thematic analysis. Findings show three key themes relating to learnings about themselves, such as self-improvement or skills or knowledge; learnings about others, such as cooperation with others and understand that people have different views; and learning about society, such as inequality and the need to fight for injustice. The findings suggest some interesting similarities and differences across contexts, which appears to reflect the different political contexts of the two countries.

The paper is trying to examine the changes between rational and irrational charitable donation of Chinese listed corporations under the background that an increasing number of Chinese listed corporations register charity foundations in recent years. Considering corporate income tax ratio as a proxy for tax preference, whether products are exposed to consumers directly or indirectly, as well as gross profit margin, debt financing scale and debt maturity structure as proxies for the reputation effect and strategic advantage, the indicators of rational charitable donation consist of the five factors mentioned above; The indicator of irrational charitable donation is disposal accrued profits calculated by Extended Jones Model. By the regression of data of charitable donations from Chinese A listed corporations during the year from 2008 to 2013, findings show that the behavior of rational charitable donation is weakened gradually, while, in contrast, the irrational charitable donation is strengthened. The listed corporations have strong motivation to transfer profits through registering and establishing charity foundations, which is a new tendency of transferring interests.

This study argues that different cities in China have different resource environments available for NGOs. Organizations react to these resource environments by constructing appropriate resource strategies, which in turn shape the characteristics and structures of the NGOs of that city. It further examines how these characteristics and structures influence the construction and performance of citizenship in an authoritarian environment. Specifically, some types of NGOs encourage Chinese citizens to be passive, while others offer a model for people to actively engage with social issues. This is aptly demonstrated in an analysis of NGOs operating across four cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, and Nanjing—which reveals three different types of resource environments and behavioral models for NGOs. We subsequently discuss the implications of each model for citizen engagement.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experience financial challenges that hinder efforts to promote social change and development. Revenue diversification is one adaptive response to these challenges, yet there is a lack of evidence concerning the relationship between revenue diversification and financial vulnerability among NGOs in SSA. Using data from an online survey of NGOs (N = 170), we hypothesized that a greater number of revenue sources is associated with lower probability of financial vulnerability, while a greater level of dependence on international funding is associated with higher probability of financial vulnerability. Results from probit regression models controlling for organizational characteristics indicated partial support for hypotheses. Having four or more types of revenue was associated with 87% lower probability of financial vulnerability compared to having one type of revenue (p < 0.001). Also, NGOs with up to half of their budgets covered by international sources had 17% lower probability of financial vulnerability compared to NGOs with no international funding (p < 0.05). Implications for future research to further explore these relationships are discussed.

The existing literature has claimed that the state-backed social enterprises in South Korea could be degenerated since the South Korean civil society is not advanced enough to safeguard them against the isomorphic pressure wielded simultaneously by the state and the market. Taking this claim seriously, this paper examines the recent development of social economy in South Korea. Based on the considerable changes in the long-standing statist model of non-profit sector since the late 1990s, the enormous impact of 2011 FAC on the civil society and social economy, and more frequent collaborative effort between the local governments and civil society organizations since 2012, this paper claims that the development of social economy in South Korea has recently shifted from dominance of state power to a mixture of top-down and bottom-up approaches.

In order to ensure sustainable development, aid donors need to improve the environmental effectiveness of their whole activity. This improvement seems to be influenced by their interactions with environmental NGOs (ENGOs). Faced with a diversity of interactions between these two kinds of actors, a strategic typology is proposed here to describe this multiplicity and, by doing so, to consider their environmental impact. Four relational postures have been identified: (i) external advocacy and (ii) the cooperation–criticism focus on the antagonistic link that exists between environment and development; (iii) environmental collaboration, and (iv) service provision, which focus on synergies that can exist between environment protection and development issues. Win–win solutions need to be continuously sought and enhanced. However, ENGOs and donors are called to recognize the necessity of maintaining a critical position in actors’ interactions vis-à-vis the implementation of development activities that are detrimental for the environment.

Disaster usually provides a good opportunity to observe the convergence of voluntary organized response efforts. However, the extent to which response organizations and affected neighborhoods go through the relief process similarly or differently is surprisingly less studied. Integrating the framework of community ecology and the concept of community resilience, this study examines the evolutionary process of an emergent disaster response community that consists of the populations of response organizations and affected neighborhoods. Using a technological disaster that occurred in Taiwan in July 2014 as the research context, this study shows that response organizations’ resource provision network and affected neighborhoods’ resource receipt network exhibited similar structural tendencies over the phases of disaster response and rebuilding. The process of mutual resource mobilization was also observed as response organizations mobilized and provided resources to affected neighborhoods at the same time. Moreover, while affected neighborhoods tended to maintain their resource relationships consistently over time, the changing structural patterns of their resource network reflected individual engagement in resuming normality after the incident. Theoretical and practical implications for emergent post-disaster social and voluntary behavior are discussed through the lens of community ecology and community resilience.

Using neo-institutional theory to guide my inquiry, I ask how foundations award international development grants in an institutionally complex environment, and if and how that process contributes to homophily in grantmaking. Employing a qualitative multiple case study method, I show that grants are awarded via interpersonal networks, a meso-level finding that suggests a second, macro-level research question: how are interpersonal networks institutionalized in this context? In my analysis, I contribute to a theoretical understanding of the recursive relationship between networks and institutions: I show how macro-level institutional practices and forms emerge from networks, and how the micro-level character of the network participants themselves ultimately shapes institutional forms. Combined, my results provide a mechanistic, multi-level understanding of the relationship between networks and institutions, as well as of how homophily operates in grantmaking. Because of the potential for social stratification and exclusion based on the structure of the network itself, I argue that such networks should be understood as “allocative failures.”