Natalie J. Webb

Relationships between Nonprofit and for-Profit Organizations: A Stakeholder Perspective

The purpose of this article is to provide a new, more comprehensive stakeholder theory of the relationships between nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. This theory combines aspects of neoclassical economics and principal-agency theory to complement the traditional notions that these organizations either compete or exist in a vacuum relative to one another. The article discusses nonprofit organizations that are employee groups (unions and professional associations), shareholders (institutional investors including pension funds and endowments), community and other interest groups, government contractors, competitors, consumers, and suppliers. By viewing these organizations as agents relative to a principal for-profit (or government) organization, it is possible to hypothesize about relationships and behaviors between organizations of different sectors of the economy. This new perspective allows a better understanding of the many relationships observed in the nonprofit sector and of a much greater range of nonprofit stakeholders than is currently possible given existing theory.

Do Occupational Group Members Vary in Volunteering Activity

The goal of our study is to explore how employees in different occupations report volunteering activities. Starting from the literatures on occupational subcultures and professional norms, the authors hypothesize that both structural constraints and norms of occupations may have an impact on extraorganizational behavior. Analyzing Center on Philanthropy Panel Study data linked with the Institute for Social Researchs Panel Study on Income Dynamics, the authors find evidence that individuals in professional, managerial, and military occupations are more likely to volunteer than are individuals in other occupational categories. Controlling for individual demographic and cultural variables, they affirm the explanatory power of occupation on individual volunteering behavior.

A Theoretical Model of the Effects of Public Funding on Saving Decisions by Charitable Nonprofit Service Providers

Why do charitable nonprofit, service-providing organizations save? What are the tradeoffs between using income to build up cash reserves and serving more clients? Saving may generate income, protect the organization against a drop in donations, and increase the organizations chances of survival. Saving, though, may affect the likelihood that nonprofits receive private and public funding. We model the relationship among private and public income, economic conditions, and nonprofit savings. We find that anticipation of government help during difficult times tends to reduce the amount of saving done by the nonprofit. This effect is strengthened if government officials view unspent donations as indicative of a lack of need. Both these effects provide a strong incentive for nonprofits to spend on current consumption rather than to save for the future, and thus to increase the burden on the public purse.

Workplace drug prevention programs: does zero tolerance work?

Current drug policy in the US military mandates frequent random drug testing of service members and dismissal of those who test positive for illegal drugs. This article analyses the economic costs and benefits of this zero tolerance policy as applied in the US Navy. Program effects consist of the actual number of detected users and the predicted number of deterred potential users. Productivity losses imposed by drug users are based on reported annual workdays lost due to drug use in the Navy. The productivity losses avoided by deterring and detecting users constitute program benefits. Program costs include the cost of replacing service members who are dismissed under the zero tolerance policy. Net benefits are sensitive to three key parameters – the deterrence effect, replacement cost, and productivity losses due to drug use. The results show that net benefits are negative for most plausible values of the key parameters.

Religious Affiliation, Religious Attendance, and Participation in Social Change Organizations

How does religion affect an individual’s likelihood of volunteering for social change causes? This study reports on findings from an analysis of the 2005 wave of the COPPS supplement to the PSID to examine the effects of religious tradition (affiliation) and religious attendance (religiosity) on social change volunteering. We find that adherents to the more liberal Christian denominations—mainline Protestant and Catholic—are more likely to volunteer with social change organizations than are Evangelicals. We also find that adherents to other minority religions such as Judaism and Buddhism and individuals with no religious belief are all more likely to volunteer with social change organizations than are Evangelicals. We find a positive and significant relationship between religious attendance and social change volunteering, but find little difference in the effect of religious attendance on social change volunteering between Evangelicals and other religious traditions (except for Catholics).

The Impact of Electronic Financial Payments on Crime

In this paper, we test the hypothesis that access to electronic payments may reduce crime. Our results suggest that there is a negative and significant statistical relationship between access to electronic payments and the incidence of economic crimes such as robbery and burglary, while electronic transactions do little to reduce the incidence of non-economic crimes such as homicide and rape. This paper provides evidence that policies and technologies that enable the proliferation of cashless transactions have the desired impact of deterring crime.

Strategy at the Crossroads: Medical Humanitarian Assistance Missions for Navy Hospital Ships

The superiority ofNavy hospital ships in providingmedical care and the ability of the ships to deploy to a great number of places in the world make them a desirable asset for combatant commanders and policymakers alike. Fortunately, these ships, the USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) in San Diego, CA, and USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) in Baltimore,MD, have not been called upon to function in their primary capacity as combat trauma hospitals for US marines and other military combatants in the past decade. Given the continued engagement of Navy hospital ships in HA missions, an ongoing question is how the leadership of government, defense, and the navy views the use of these assets. Current government documents and operations statements suggest multiple priorities, desired outcomes, goals and actions for the ships. Based on the USNS Mercy’s website, the ship has both a primary mission: “To provide rapid, flexible, and mobile acute medical and surgical services . . .”; and a secondary mission: “To provide mobile surgical hospital service for use by appropriate US Government agencies in disaster or humanitarian relief . . .”The official immediate priority is to be able to fully activate the Defense & Security Analysis Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 161–179, June 2010

Linking Defense Planning and Resource Decisions: A Return to Systems Thinking

many national governments in the 1960s and 1970s, today’s planning-to-resourcing systems have returned to focus on systems or capabilities. This article provides an overview of the steps required to define and implement a defense planning-toresourcing system with a focus on systems or capabilities.Research on defense planning shows that defense planners continuously strive to “improve” by alternating their planning focus among capabilities, systems and functions, where the building block of defense is viewed as capabilities, systems or functions, respectively. Budgeters, by trade, legislation and expectation remain focused on inputs purchased.The difficulty with linking plans to resources lies in the details: the explicit connections between planning and budgeting to ensure that defense allocates resources according to the choices and preferences made in the planning stage. This article returns to the dilemma faced for at least 50 years: can defense link the choices of planners, via program budgets, to resource allocation decisions?This article describes one method to support the choices of decision-makers from desired capabilities through to budgets and back.While the focus is on planning based on capabilities, the discussion applies to other defense planning and resourcing systems.

Financial Dereliction of Duty: Are Charities That Aid Servicemen and Veterans Systematically Mismanaged?

Charity watchdogs and the media level serious allegations of mismanagement of funds at charities serving former and current members of the U.S. armed services, affecting service recipients, families, donors, grantors, foundations, and taxpayers. To examine these allegations, we use two approaches from the literature to assess nonprofit financial effectiveness: the organization’s ability to gain resources and to sustain activities. We mirror the approach of charity raters, whose measures are widely available to the public. Using GuideStar/Internal Revenue Service data, we compare fund-raising expenditures, assets, and financial sustainability of large national military and veterans nonprofits to a random sample of national nonprofits. We apply propensity score matching and compare organizations similar in size, age, and other factors. We find little difference between military and veterans charities and other nonprofits and provide an improved method for evaluating the financial health of nonprofits across academic discipline, nonprofit field of service, and within or among countries.