Over the past 15 years, privately held small businesses generated nearly two-thirds of the net job growth in the United States, yet much of what scholars know regarding the capitalization challenges faced by small businesses is limited to data from large corporations. In 2013 alone, business bankruptcies numbered 33,212, and each year approximately 10% to 12% of U.S. small businesses close. Ineffective capitalization strategies coupled with a limited understanding of funding options frequently results in unsustainable business practices. In this multiple case study, the capital budgeting theory was utilized to explore the capitalization strategies small business owners in the greater Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area employed to achieve sustainability beyond 5 years of business inception. Participants were purposefully selected based on their tenure in business, number of employees, and geographic location. Data were collected via in-person semistructured interviews with 4 small business owners, coupled with a review of financial archival documents. Data were analyzed using theme interpretation, data grouping, and word frequency tabulation. Three themes emerged: a preference for self-funded, personal capitalization; the leveraging of personal relationships as a primary educational strategy; and a general aversion to debt and high interest rates. Implementing sound capitalization strategies contributes to social change by improving the likelihood of long-term sustainability. Sustainable small businesses increase employment opportunities, wage growth, and community-based services while enhancing the overall quality of life for local families and the community.

Leaders of nonprofit organizations fail to achieve financial stability to meet their mission and vision without sustainable funding. The achievement of fiscal sustainability is the most pressing challenge facing the nonprofit sector. Through the lens of the balanced scorecard model, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that nonprofit organization executive leaders used to secure sustainable funding for financial stability. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 executive directors of nonprofit organizations in Ohio and a review of their organizational documents relevant to sustainable funding. Data were analyzed using Yin's 5-step process for analysis. The 3 emergent themes resulting from data analysis were a sustainable programming strategy, a relationship collaboration strategy, and a donor commitment strategy. The findings of the study indicated that leaders of nonprofit organizations secure sustainable funding for financial stability through effective programming to fulfill their mission, developing collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and improving donor commitment to receive funding through reoccurring donations and endowment sources. Leaders of nonprofit organizations could use the findings of this study to provide comprehensive services that result in improved living and economic conditions in the communities they serve through implementing strategies for sustainable funding to meet the mission of their organizations.

abstract: The lasting benefits of high-quality early childhood programs are widely understood. These benefits and the well-documented return on investments are among the factors that have shaped executives at philanthropic foundations’ grant making in support of early childhood programs, policies, and research in the United States. Yet little is known about the investments they are making in the field of early childhood. Drawing from a conceptual framework that combines types of philanthropic investment with the concepts of accountability and transparency, I conducted a comparative case study of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, George Kaiser Family Foundation, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, all of which began financially supporting early childhood between 2000 and 2005. I attempted to understand how and why philanthropic foundations and pooled funding organizations have supported early childhood from the late 1990s through 2018. Based on my analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with current and former early childhood philanthropic foundation, pooled funding, and operating organization executives, I found that each foundation independently determines their investment decision processes and invests a disparate amount of money in early childhood. In addition, philanthropic foundations gain programmatic and legislative power by leveraging funds and partnering with additional foundations and businesses. With the inclusion of early childhood programs in K-12 education systems and the decrease in national and state education funding from those same budgets, it is critical to understand how philanthropic foundations have supported early childhood education and some of the implications of their support both locally and nationally. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2019

This study examines San Joaquin County parents' and guardians' media use, interpersonal discussion and attitudes toward funding public schools. Specifically, it investigated the effect of media use on the salience of funding for public schools and how it may be mediated by interpersonal discussion about local public schools. Data was collected from 513 parents and guardians of kindergarten- through sixth-grade children, who responded to a purposive survey distributed within their large urban district, Tracy Unified School District, a small rural district, Jefferson Elementary School District, and a charter school run by San Joaquin County Office of Education. The survey was used to test a hypothesis and research question. The research found that there is a correlation with media use and parental attitudes toward public school funding. More significantly, however, is that the results indicated that interpersonal discussion is a much stronger predictor of parent's attitudes toward public school funding than media use. This study implies that interpersonal discussions with teachers and school administrators can further problem solving and/or decision-making with parents.

This licentiate thesis consist of two essays. Both essays deal with corporate finance and its impact on innovation investment.  In the first essay we use German Community Innovation Survey to identify financially constrained firms. Contrary to previous studies we find that the relationship between financial constraints and firm size is inverted u-shaped and that it is the group of medium sized firms which has the largest funding gaps. This is explained by the fact that these firms have high innovation capabilities but at the same time face high cost of capital. Furthermore, we test if financial constraints have an impact on firm productivity growth. We find negative effects from funding gaps on productivity, but only for investment in tangible capital and not for innovation investments. The second essay investigates whether there has been a change in the productivity and funding mix of innovative SMEs post stricter bank regulations. Our result shows that the likelihood of using bank loans as a funding source has not changed for innovation investments nor for tangible investments after stricter capital regulations have been announced. On the other hand, sources such as subsidies have increased due to regulatory programs that have been implemented in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. Furthermore, SMEs productivity has not changed post stricter bank regulations. Overall, the impact from different sources of funding on productivity is rather limited. / <p>QC 20180110</p>

The subject of this study was the development of a computer-based system for the modeling of costing assumptions in an academic department. Initially, costing assumptions were defined as those assumptions made in the selection of costing sources and apportioning procedures in cost studies. The major theme of this study was that the system should allow for multiple sets of costing assumptions to be modeled, and it should allow for a very low level of cost disaggregation. This modeling system allows costs to be attached to individual course enrollments, and it also allows multiple departmental cost studies to be performed simultaneously so that any two may be compared for sensitivity analysis.

The problem of this study was to determine the status of program budgeting in selected Texas public schools as perceived by superintendents of those schools. The purposes were (1) to determine the implementation status of program budgeting in the major concept areas of systems analysis, multiyear planning, objective-based programs, cost inclusiveness, and administrative commitment and (2) to determine if the perception of the superintendents differed significantly depending upon the size of the school district they represent. Conclusions and recommendations for effective transition to a program budgeting system were then formulated. It was concluded from the findings that program budgeting concepts are present in all sizes of school districts surveyed; however, the data failed to reveal a fully implemented system in operation in any of the districts. The moderate level of program budgeting implementation in school districts appears to be the result of mandated utilization of the program-oriented accounting system. The program budgeting concepts other than the program budget seems to be implemented only to the degree necessary to adequately operationalize the required accounting system elements. There were no significant differences for any of the concept items relative to the size of the districts. Tire review of the literature failed to reveal significant encouragement from the state level for the full implementation of a program budgeting system in local school districts. It was implied from, the findings and conclusions that program budgeting should continue as a priority for Texas school districts, and efforts at all levels of education be expended to establish fully operational program budgeting systems in Texas school districts.

The purpose of this study was to examine gifted education programs in public schools in Northeast Tennessee. There is a wide disparity among established gifted programs regarding the identification of the students, the eligibility of the students, and the services they receive. This disparity has led to varying levels of support and service for gifted children in Northeast Tennessee. A survey was developed and distributed to individuals who oversee the gifted department in their school system. Data were collected regarding gifted student identification processes, individual program requirements, funding of gifted programs, professional development, and advanced teacher training. National research has been directed towards the identification of gifted students and the types of programs that might be optimal for students with high intellectual abilities. This study was a descriptive analysis of the identification process of gifted children and the programs and policies in place in a purposeful sample of the school systems of Northeast Tennessee. This researcher examined various aspects of funding allocation for this special population. There are significant differences in the allocation and use of resources by Tennessee school systems. The researcher also sought to identify the programs that are offered for gifted students. This study revealed that some school systems in Northeast Tennessee do not have established gifted programs. The school systems that do have established gifted programs vary. Some of these schools provided a modified gifted program that included two types of pullout programs. In the first type, students left the regular classroom or were pulled out to go to a separate classroom to receive gifted instruction once a week. In the second type, students were pulled out once every two weeks. Many of the respondents reported they provided differentiated instruction for all students. Of the school systems that had established programs, respondents reported that their schools had written objectives or philosophies for their gifted programs. The reported need for financial support was great. According to the respondents, more funds were needed to support teacher training, hire more personnel (teachers and administrators), purchase materials, and extend programs.

Objectives. To investigate differences in funding and service delivery between rural and urban local health departments (LHDs) in the United States. Methods. In this repeated cross-sectional study, we examined rural–urban differences in funding and service provision among LHDs over time using 2010 and 2016 National Association of County and City Health Officials data. Results. Local revenue among urban LHDs (41.2%) was higher than that in large rural (31.3%) and small rural LHDs (31.2%; P < .05). Small (20.9%) and large rural LHDs (19.8%) reported greater reliance on revenue from Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services than urban LHDs (11.5%; P < .05). All experienced decreases in clinical revenue between 2010 and 2016. Urban LHDs provided less primary care services in 2016; rural LHDs provided more mental health and substance abuse services (P < .05). Conclusions. Urban LHDs generated more revenues from local sources, and rural LHDs generated more from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and clinical services. Rural LHDs tended to provide more clinical services. Given rural LHDs’ reliance on clinical revenue, decreases in clinical services could have disproportionate effects on them. Public Health Implications. Differences in financing and service delivery by rurality have an impact on the communities. Rural LHDs rely more heavily on state and federal dollars, which are vulnerable to changes in state and national health policy.

Local Health Departments (LHDs) are administrative unit of a local or state government, concerned with the health of a community or county. There are approximately 2,800 agencies or units that meet the profile definition of LHD. These LHDs vary in size and composition depending on the population they serve. However, all these communitybased agencies share a common mission of “protecting and improving community wellbeing by preventing disease, illness, and injury while impacting social, economic, and environmental factors fundamental to excellent health”. One of the ongoing challenge of a focus on community-level, population-based prevention is the manner in which local public health agencies have been funded. Most LHDs funding comes from federal funds, supplemented by state and local funds. Many of these funds come to LHDs through competitive grants programs. This study was therefore undertaken to investigate the sources of funding for the Local Public Health Agencies, according to geography specifically rurality. We utilized the data already compiled by the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) in 2013. The population served by these health agencies were compared to the funding sources, and one –way ANOVA to estimate the significance between these variables. Our dependent variables were assigned to be the funding sources, while the independent variables were the two population categories –rural and urban. A categorical variable reflecting three levels of rurality was constructed using RUCA codes. “Urban” included census tracts with towns with populations >50,000. “Large rural” included census tracts with towns of between 10,000 and 49,999 population and census tracts tied to these towns through commuting. “Small rural” included census tracts with small towns of fewer than 10,000 population, tracts tied to small towns, and isolated census tracts. Furthermore, we also determined the proportion of revenue from these funding sources received by these three population groups. All analyses were completed using SPSS. There were no differences in the amount of revenues received by both the large and small rural and urban agencies from the State & Federal sources (p value = 0.182). However, urban agencies receive more funding from Medicare and Medicaid services (19.9%) compared to small rural with 6.9% (p<0.001). Comparatively, the amount of revenue generated by rural agencies is just a fraction of what the urban agencies generate. Residents of rural areas in the United States tend to be older and poorer, report more risky health behaviors, have more barriers to accessing health care, and have worse health status and health outcomes than do their urban counterparts. These rural LHDs have fewer resources and face strenuous challenges in carrying out their activities of keeping the community safe due to limited revenues. Until public health agencies are firmly connected to payment and funding mechanisms across the health system, communities, the overall health system and accountable care organizations will not see the true benefits of population-focused, community-based, prevention services.