Susan A. Ostrander

Democracy, Civic Participation, and the University: A Comparative Study of Civic Engagement on Five Campuses

This research is a comparative study of civic engagement on five campuses. Based on site visits, interviews on campuses and in host communities, document analysis, and literature reviews, four key findings emerged: (a) shifting and varying emphases in main components of engagement; (b) local factors that facilitate and present barriers to engagement; (c) intellectual rationales and projects to drive new knowledge, involve faculty, and institutionalize and sustain engagement; and (d) new organizational structures to link the campus and community and share power and resources. The argument is made for a dynamic and developmental framework that acknowledges multiplicity and flow. The article concludes with an initial mapping of changing relationships between local factors and civic-engagement program emphases and an articulation of three main current theories of engagement that a developmental framework would take into account.

The Growth of Donor Control: Revisiting the Social Relations of Philanthropy:

Building on an earlier social relations conceptualization of philanthropy as a two-way, mutual, interactive relationship between donors and recipient groups, this article explores the current growth of donor control. Arguing that philanthropy has moved in the opposite direction from what a social relations theory posited, the article identifies and examines organizational forms that provide donors today with opportunities for increased control by creating new relationships of (a) donor exclusivity (donor networks, giving circles), (b) donor intermediaries between donors and philanthropic advisors and providers of other services including donor-advised funds, and (c) donor oversight between “social investors” and their nonprofit “partners” in high-engagement philanthropy. These categories emerged from a critical review of recent literature. The article concludes with an explanation for increased donor control that is then applied to suggest how to elevate the influence of recipient groups over charitable gifts and bring greater balance into the social relationship between donor and recipient groups.

Money for Change: Social Movement Philanthropy at Haymarket People's Fund.

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Community Groups and Community Funders 3. Funding Community Organizing 4. Inherited-Wealth Donors 5. Connecting Fundraising and Organizing 6. Organizational Restructuring and Democracy 7. Beyond Diversity: Building a Multirace, Multiclass, Gender-Equal Organization 8. Conclusion Appendix A: Methodology/Epistemology Appendix B: Grant Application Notes References Index

GENDER AND RACE IN A PRO-FEMINIST, PROGRESSIVE, MIXED-GENDER, MIXED-RACE ORGANIZATION

Feminist researchers have urged more study of how feminist practice is actually accomplished in mixed-gender organizations. Social movement scholars have called for more attention to dynamics of gender and race in social movement organizations, especially to the challenges of maintaining internal solidarity. Based on field observations in a pro-feminist, progressive, mixed-gender, mixed-race social movement organization, this article examines organizational decision-making processes and interpersonal and group dynamics. Gendered and racialized patterns of subordination are both very much in evidence and—at the same time—actively challenged in this organization. The author argues that profeminist and progressive organizational practices and efforts to create solidarity across gender and race can exist through competing and contradictory dynamics and ongoing struggles. Complex and inconsistent dynamics around these social barriers are likely to occur in organizations more generally and need to be a subject for more research.

Shifting the Debate: Public/Private Sector Relations in the Modern Welfare State:

Susan A. Ostrander, Department of Sociology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155. Current scholarly literature on nongovernmental nonprofits recognizes that the line between the &dquo;private&dquo; nongovernmental sector and the &dquo;public&dquo; governmental sector has become increasingly blurred. The public/private dichotomy is no longer seen as a useful or accurate conceptualization of social reality. The papers in this

Private Social Services: Obstacles to the Welfare State?

Drawing on a field study of three established voluntary family and childrens service agencies, this paper illuminates the Patterns of mutual dependence and interaction between these agencies and the welfare state and the interest of these agencies in a large and permanent welfare state.

Upper class women: The feminine side of privilege

Activities of upper class women that serve as class-related contributions, constraints, rewards and motivations are discussed in the womens own terms. Study of this previously neglected group indicates that the upper class womans roles function well in not only achieving influence and benefits for herself and her class, but also in preventing moves toward a society that would take away some of her elite influence and benefits. Implications for maintaining the position of the upper class are discussed.

Moderating Contradictions of Feminist Philanthropy Women’s Community Organizations and the Boston Women’s Fund, 1995 to 2000

Philanthropy is typically hierarchically constructed with an imbalance of power between funders and grantees. While this seems inherent in philanthropic relationships where funders inevitably control resources that grantees need, some women’s funds have sought to construct less hierarchical and thus more feminist relationships with the organizations they support. Based on many years of insider access to a local women’s fund, this article describes and explains the organization’s efforts to develop interactive dialogues with its grantees, which led to a change in grants guidelines that were more inclusive of women’s methods of community organizing. A small survey of women’s community groups, done as background to this research, provides data on challenges and obstacles these groups face when seeking monies to support their work. Some attention is given to implications for general theories of organizations, for funder-grantee dialogues leading to increased accountability in philanthropy, and for support of women’s community organizations.

Toward Implications for Research, Theory, and Policy on Nonprofits and Voluntarism

Susan A. Ostrander, Department of Sociology, Tufts University, Medford MA 02155. In addition to the broad conceptual themes laid out in the introduction, the papers here deserve some discussion of overall implications for research and theory development, and for policy. That is the aim of this brief concluding statement. My goal is not to consider all of the main points in these papers, nor is it to restate what the

Voluntary Social Service Agencies in the United States

Existing formulations of the voluntary welfare sector are problematic and reflect a lack of clarity about the voluntary sector and its relationship to the welfare state. This paper aims toward a new formulation based on a review of existing research and illustrative material from a recent in-depth study of three established agencies. The new formulation suggests that the voluntary sector can contribute to reform of the welfare state-for example, to democratizing and decentralizing welfare state services, and to building cross-class political alliances in support of welfare services.