The problem under investigation. This dissertation analyzed philanthropic donations and fund-raising behavior in children's museums. The research embodies a descriptive, inductive, and deductive study which infers that philanthropic donations increase gradually and are influenced by an organization's fund-raising behavior. The subjects. A stratified random sample of 15 small, 47 medium, and 20 large U.S. children's museums were surveyed; operating budgets determined museum size. The methodology. Time-series statistical techniques and economic data measures calculated the change in children's museum philanthropic donations from 1990-1994. Correlation coefficients determined the relationships between the income variables. The fund-raising behavior variables, nominal data, were calculated in percentage/frequency tables. The chi-square test statistic checked for dependency between the behavioral variables and museum size. The findings. This analysis showed the complex relationships between fund-raising systems and their philanthropic environment. The results demonstrate the strong tie between philanthropy and fund-raising. They illustrate that fund-raising cannot be an isolated management function. The data indicate how fund-raising behavior, donor attitudes, and economic conditions influence giving fluctuations. It discloses organizational donor preferences, and the control those donors might have over internal management decisions. The effects of donor networks, political lobbying, and geographic location were also detected in the figures. Conclusions. This study affirmed that persistent organizational funding requires diversified, balanced relationships between nonprofit organizations and the philanthropic sector. Children's museums need a fund-raising philosophy; voluntary giving must become a core institutional value. This philosophy must be espoused by the Chief Executive Officer who works with and through a Board President and Board of Directors who embrace the same fund-raising rationale. The organizations also need trained personnel to administer the philosophy.

Recent trends of financial distress for non-profit hospitals and the uptick in acquisition of these hospitals by for-profit entities indicate different focuses from the management of each type of hospital. Using data on hospital quality and basic financial measures, this study examines shift in the balance of financial and quality performance. The dataset focuses on private non-profit and for-profit hospitals with low bed counts, ranging from 50-200 total beds. Results indicate a positive relationship between for-profit status and basic financial performance measures, such as profitability, and a negative relationship with patient experience, cost reduction for the patient, and overall quality. This signals a tradeoff between financial performance and quality, especially measures relating to the customer. For-profit hospital management places more of an emphasis on the financial performance while non-profit hospital management demonstrates a balance between financial performance and high quality performance. Without being involved in hospital management decision-making, examining hospital outcomes is the best way to give insight into how hospital management is shifts performance priorities by different types of ownership.

Since the first national park Yellowstone was established, people from across the world have come to visit the natural wonders that our national parks have to offer. While much empirical research has been conducted concerning the marketing and branding strategies of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and tourism destinations; not much has been conducted on national parks. This research seeks to understand how our national parks have marketed and branded themselves over time and determine how marketing and branding will play a role in the development and conservation of the parks. This research was conducted utilizing in- depth methods such as an autoethnographic reflection and content analysis. Throughout the content analysis, themes arose amongst the strategies of the national parks over time such as “Romanticism,” “Exploration,” “Nature Preservation,” and many more discussed throughout this research. Each of these unique themes represents what was culturally important.

The most significant tax overhaul bill in over thirty years was enacted in 2017 and expected to have wide-ranging effects. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes numerous policies that directly and indirectly impact the higher education sector and the effect to endowments was not addressed in the public debate leading up to enactment. Unlike expendable gifts, a reduction in endowment contributions has a cumulative effect because a gift to an endowment can benefit all subsequent years. Each year following a contribution, investment income earned on the original gift is available for spending and benefits escalate over time in amount, assuming the value of the original gift continues to grow. The purpose of this study is to analyze precisely the direct and indirect impact of personal income tax regulations on the charitable sector. It will do so by disaggregating data to delineate clearly the differential consequences that distinguish higher education from other components of the broad charitable sector umbrella. A model is developed to predict the erosion of endowment wealth following a decrease in contributions due to tax policy using panel data from a previous ten-year period assuming the tax policy was first effective beginning in year one. The erosion of overall endowment wealth is gradual, and subsectors of higher education are predicted to experience varying rates of attrition. Regression analysis is then used on giving by source data to institutional and endowment characteristics indicative of greater reliance on contributions from individuals to the endowment; the results are suggestive but inconclusive.

Food insecurity and chronic hunger are devastating global problems currently facing more than a billion people. There are many actors involved in the response to stomp out world hunger, including International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs). These INGOs, however, work in tumultuous environments with limited resources. This dissertation examines the INGOs involved in the food security dilemma (N=51) to investigate how they use resources to reach hungry populations. It is hypothesized INGOs use a mix of material resources and social capital to enhance their organizational performance. However, little is known about the impact these resources have on reaching communities in need. Social network analysis is used to examine the connections between and among INGOs to create a measure of organizational social capital. In addition, material resources, such as human resources, revenue and volunteers are used to examine an organization's material capacity. Material and social resources are examined through a moderated regression analysis to evaluate how they interact, and if the promotion of both types of resources is beneficial to the INGOs and the communities they serve. With data from over 1186 projects globally, results are presented regarding the effectiveness of social capital and material resources in reaching the world's "bottom billion."

Nonprofit organizations rely heavily on their governing board of directors to provide leadership, strategic guidance, and financial oversight. The nonprofit community continues to grow, and the services provided by these organizations have become a critical part of our society, providing a wide variety of services targeting a diverse population. In this context, how the role of the board of directors impacts the financial position of the nonprofit organization is of great interest to both the academic community and the practitioner. This study examined three areas of interest: board effectiveness, funding source, and financial vulnerability. First, the association between board effectiveness and financial vulnerability was tested. Second, specific board behaviors associated with strategic planning and stakeholder management were tested to determine if they were greater predictors of financial vulnerability. Finally, the role of funding source (specifically privately funded organizations) as a moderating variable for board effectiveness and financial vulnerability was explored. The sample was composed of 112 participants, consisting of board member/executive director survey responses and financial information for the participating organizations. The sample was drawn from six counties in the Central Florida area. Data were collected from a series of mailings, and surveys were distributed at nonprofit lecture series. The Financial Vulnerability Index (FVI) was used as a measure of the financial condition of the nonprofit organization and represented the dependent variable in this study. The Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire (BSAQ) was used to assess board effectiveness and represented the independent variable in this study. Primary funding source was identified as a moderating variable, while board size, age of the organization, CEO tenure, service area, United Way affiliation, national affiliation were included as control variables. Board effectiveness as measured by the BSAQ was a significant predictor of financial vulnerability as measured by the FVI. The strategic and stakeholder behaviors associated with board effectiveness were not found to be significant predictors of financial vulnerability, beyond other behaviors associated with board effectiveness. Funding source was shown to moderate the observed relationship between board effectiveness and financial vulnerability, as the association between effectiveness and financial condition was significant in privately funded nonprofit organizations (no such significance was identified in government funded or commercially funded organizations).

The purpose of this study was to apply the Revised Theory of Planned Behavior and EVENTQUAL models to explore (1) event qualities that significantly impact guests’ satisfaction with a university event that they attend, (2) significant factors influencing university loyalty as a result of an event, and (3) willingness to make a charitable donation to a university as a result of attending an event. An online survey was sent to attendees of an annual Cal Poly auction event between 2002 and 2016 that directly benefits Cal Poly students. The data were used to test a series of hypotheses to determine the fit of a proposed theoretical model. Although the study was limited by a small sample size of 74 subjects, it resulted in the creation of a revised event fundraising model. Student involvement proved to be the only quality significantly predicting a guest’s overall satisfaction with the event, explaining 12% of the variance. The combination of overall event satisfaction with a subset of the revised theory of planned behavior variables (attitude, descriptive norm, and moral norm) explained 51% of the variance in predicting university loyalty. Finally, intention to donate was best predicted as a combination of prescriptive norm, attitude, and university loyalty, accounting for 57% of the variance. Overall, the revised model is applicable in aspects of university event planning including event branding, marketing, and the involvement of students at the event. Of serious note is the statistically significant attitude variable. If an event planner can utilize a university event to shift the guests’ attitudes towards the event and university, this can greatly enhance not only intention to donate at one particular event, but the loyalty these people feel to the university or program.

In recent years, there has been a shift in among Kentucky rural electric cooperatives in regard to their stance on economic development. With this has been the employment of electric cooperative staff to help attract new industries and forge relationships with other local economic development-geared groups to facilitate growth. Cooperative businesses have historically proved their resilience and deep-rooted connections within the communities they serve. In exploring two similar-sized electric cooperatives in Kentucky located in two very different regions of the state, considering socio-economic status, and interviewing key informants with local affiliated economic development groups, it becomes evident that electric cooperatives possess a great potential to serve as a catalyst for economic development within their respective service territories.

This study examines mentors’ perspective and level of satisfaction with the elements of effective practices among girl mentoring programs in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The sample consisted of mentors who served at-risk girls. The variables analyzed included the following: recruitment, screening, training, matching, monitoring, support, and closure. Explanatory design was used to generate the study and the purposive and snowball sampling was utilized to gather the analysis. A total of 125 respondents participated in the study. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that mentors are overall satisfied with their experience with mentoring girls. Among the best practice elements the screening, matching, and monitoring and support were the greatest predictors of mentor satisfaction.

The primary objective of this dissertation is to study the management of public and nonprofit resources and financial risk. Governments will be able to use its findings to continue to provide public services in collaboration with other sectors, including the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit financial self-sufficiency and sub-award grant mechanisms between the government and nonprofit sectors are two primary areas to be examined. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first investigates how the diversification of nonprofit revenue portfolios influences extreme revenue risks; the results show that the chance of extreme revenue loss increases when revenue sources are highly correlated to each other. The second essay examines the impact of strenuous state fiscal conditions on nonprofit organizations based in different U.S. states in order to report on generalizable empirical research on sub-award grant mechanisms, state and local government grants awarded to nonprofit organizations. The third essay explores the nonprofit sector’s response to economic shocks, and whether specific state characteristics intensified or mitigated the impact of the economic crisis. The findings from this dissertation can help nonprofit-sector scholars and practitioners understand different perspectives of market risk, revenue risk and portfolio development, and financial stability related to government grants.