Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Cross-sectoral collaborations between non-profit organisations (NPOs) and the business sector are on the rise. The success of the cross-sectoral collaboration is varied and based upon the value generated for both parties. Most literature around cross-sectoral collaboration has been written with a bias towards the corporate sector, not taking into account the challenges faced by NPOs. This research project focused upon the value generated from collaborations between NPOs and individuals from the corporate sector, within the NPO landscape. The University of Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development (USB-ED) presents a course to develop the skills of senior managers in the Senior Management Development Programme (SMDP). As part of the programme, participants (from the business sector) are required to complete a business driven action learning (BDAL) assignment where they engage NPOs in order to do a strategic analysis and develop a strategic plan for them. The BDAL assignment is not only designed to provide the SMDP participants with the opportunity to apply knowledge acquired in the course, but also aims to make a social contribution. Qualitative research methods were employed to study the engagement between the NPOs and the SMDP participants, the outcomes of the BDAL assignment and the perceived value created for the NPOs and SMDP participants. The research was not an evaluation of the BDAL assignment but drew on the information generated from the BDAL assignment to understand how value was generated through the process of business and NPOs working together. Value was generated for the NPOs through the relationship with the SMDP participants and the skills the SMDP participants employed during the collaboration. It was found, however, that the outcome was mostly generated on a strategic level for the NPO. But, as a result of a lack in capacity, the NPOs were not able to maximise the value from the BDAL assignment implementing it on an operational level. Where the SMDP participants were able to close the gap between the strategic and the operational level, through skills transfer and providing practical guidelines, the value increased significantly and operation efficiency increased. The findings on how value was generated through the BDAL assignment and the literature review formed the foundations for the guidelines that are provided for cross-sectoral collaboration, within the NPO landscape. Subsequently, the aim of the study is to enrich the cross-sectoral collaborations between NPOs and business, as well as the BDAL assignment and its outcomes.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Local non-governmental organisations play an important role in the development processes of Zimbabwe. However, they face an uncertain future, as they depend on volatile external donor funding which leaves them financially unsustainable. This research sought to determine whether local non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe were sustainable, and to analyse the main factors that influenced their financial sustainability. Through a mixed methods research design including literature review, secondary data analysis and a survey using a structured questionnaire, this research revealed that local non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe were financially unsustainable. A regression analysis was employed to determine the relationships between the different factors and financial sustainability. The research focused on four factors of financial sustainability of local non-governmental organisations: sound financial management practices, income diversification, own income generation, and good donor relationship management practices. Data used for the research was from 2009 to 2013. The survey of 52 local non-governmental organisations spread throughout Zimbabwe provided primary data for the research. The research confirmed findings of others that local non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe were not financially sustainable and depended on external donor funds. The research revealed that most local non-governmental organisations were funded entirely by external donors, had no reserve funds, were not generating own income, and depended on average on about three donors. This meant that if the external donors pulled out these organisations would cease operations. The research revealed that on average donor dependency ratios for Zimbabwean non-governmental organisations were above 93 percent, while survival ratios were very low with 22 days being the maximum. These results meant that if external donors completely pulled out their funding, local non-governmental organisations would operate for at most 22 days before closing down. The research also revealed that most local non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe were not leveraging their assets to generate income, and most were not engaged in own income generating activities while their funding sources were not diversified enough to be regarded sustainable. The government of Zimbabwe was not funding local non-governmental organisations and local donors were scant. The regression analysis ascertained that sound financial management practices had the largest influence on financial sustainability of local non-governmental organisations in Zimbabwe, followed by income diversification, then own income generation and good donor relationship management. The research recommends that international donors should provide local non-governmental organisations with some unrestricted income to support start-up of social entrepreneurship activities and small businesses to ensure the financial sustainability of the programmes they fund. The government of Zimbabwe must view local non-governmental organisations as partners that complement its work and are therefore deserving of government funding. Non-governmental organisations need to change their mind-set, start social entrepreneurship and small business activities, and refrain from just seeing external donors as their main source of funding. Networks of non-governmental organisations must fundraise to train and enhance the capacity of their member organisations in running social enterprises and small businesses, and hire staff with expertise in running profit-making activities to complement their non-profit work.

Different disciplinary, theoretical, and empirical lenses have contributed to a kaleidoscopic picture of CSO governance. Most of the time, CSO governance is contrasted with corporate governance in business organizations; only rarely is the broad variety of CSOs taken into account. To widen this perspective, we develop an empirically grounded typology of five discourses of organization in CSOs: managerialist, domestic, professionalist, grassroots, and civic discourse. We argue that each of these discourses gives specific answers to the three core questions of governance: To whom is the CSO accountable, i.e., who are the key actors who need to be protected by governance mechanisms? For what kind of performance is the CSO accountable? And which structures and processes are appropriate to ensure accountability? The way in which different discourses answer these questions provides us with a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the manifold notions of governance in CSOs. (authors' abstract)

Abstract Title: Nonprofit transparency in practic. A study concerning how transperancy is motivated in fundrasing organisations. Author: Julia Heiming & Alexandra Strand Tutor: Josef Pallas Purpose: The purpose with this thesis was to examine whether transparency exists and how it appears in nonprofit organizations, first and foremost in their fundraising. Moreover, the investigation display a more thoroughly and complex image of transparency compared to the external, which is more requested nowadays. The key questions to be answered are; How does nonprofit organizations consider themselves to be transparent?, What sort of transparency exists within the participating nonprofit organizations?, Does the collaborators have an insight in the operation managers’ decisions?, Do the operation managers have an insight in the work of their employees’, concerning their collection processes?, Does the collection organizations have an oversee concerning their branch and what is said about them?, Does external stakeholders have an opportunity to get insight in the organizations’ collecting processes? Method/Material: The results are based on a qualitative study built on nine different semi structured interviews with three nonprofit organizations. The interviews are based on a model made by Esaiasson, Gilljam, Oscarsson and Wängnerud which later on was analyzed with Heald’s four different types of transparency. Main results: The primary result of the survey proved that all the four different types of transparency more or less exist within the participating organizations. Transparency inwards is the type that the organizations proved to focus on the most. However, the organizations did also focus on the remaining three types. In account of this survey a broader picture of transparency has been disclosed, not only the public view has been displayed. As a nonprofit organization one should be aware of all four different varieties of transparency when openness towards different types engender trust towards the nonprofit organizations, which in return can generate donations. Number of pages: 65 Course: Media and Communication studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Period: Fall 2014 Keywords: Transparency, Nonprofit sector, Nonprofit organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Collection processes.

This project examines the discursive-material construction of 'economic empowerment' at organizations serving survivors of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). It uses multiple qualitative methods, including interviews, observations, and document analysis at 18 different organizations supporting CSE survivors.

An important factor in the rise of health care costs is the structure and performance of health care markets. This is an area in which policy can be particularly effective. Health care markets are characterized by complex interactions between consumers, physicians, insurers, facilities, and government agencies. Physicians, insurers, and facilities operate under a mix of objectives and governance structures. The many varieties of objectives and governance structures can be broadly categorized as for-profit, not-for-profit, and governmental. In the three chapters that follow I construct a theoretical framework to analyze hospital behavior and use a 30 year panel of data on Californian hospitals to assess the validity of the models and to identify the impact of governance structure on behavior. Chapter II addresses firm objectives. I find that firms have a continuum of weighting allocations, with for-profit firms placing greater weight on profit, government firms placing greater weight on social objectives, and not-for-profit firms locating in a middle ground. All three types of governance structures display overlap in their objectives. In Chapter III, I identify patterns in hospital entry and exit. Like most manufacturing industries, entering hospitals are significantly smaller than incumbent hospitals and exiting hospitals are significantly smaller than surviving hospitals. The patterns of entry and exit for hospitals vary systematically with both governance structure and geographic diversification. In Chapter IV, I develop a model of hospital entry that explains heterogeneous entry size and firm survival. I find entry size to be a relatively important factor in firm survival. In general entering on a larger scale increases the probability of survival. Despite this fact many firms enter relatively small. The model that I develop resolves small entry as a rational choice for uncertain firms.

Esta Dissertação discute a qualidade de serviços nas organizações do terceiro setor. Sendo o tema ainda pouco trabalhado pela Engenharia de Produção no Brasil, é realizada uma pesquisa exploratória, utilizando a metodologia de estudo de caso. Através de revisão da literatura e de pesquisa de campo efetuada em organizações selecionadas, são estudados os aspectos organizacionais e administrativos do terceiro setor, verificando as particularidades existentes na aplicação do conceito de qualidade de serviços (expectativas X percepção dos clientes) naquelas instituições. Conclui-se que esta não pode ser conduzida da mesma forma que nas empresas de mercado. Devem ser observadas três características típicas das organizações do terceiro setor: não apresentam um único cliente, mas diversos stakeholders representando este papel; cada um destes atores possui distintas expectativas com relação à instituição e apresenta diferentes critérios de avaliação da qualidade de seus serviços; e, em função de valores como justiça e solidariedade, fundamentais neste tipo de organização, o processo de prestação de serviços assume especial relevância, sendo muitas vezes mais importante do que os resultados obtidos. / This Dissertation discusses the service quality in nonprofit organizations. As the subject was not yet deeply studied by Industrial Engineering in Brazil, an exploratory research is conducted, using the case study methodology. Through a bibliographic revision and a field research developed in selected organizations, the nonprofit sector’s organizational and administrative aspects are analyzed, verifying the specific features in applying service quality concept (customer expectation X perception) in those organizations. It concludes that the implementation can not be done in the same way as in for profit companies. Three typical aspects of the nonprofits must be considered: they don’t have only one client, but several stakeholders playing this part; each one of those actors has different expectations towards the institution and its own way of assessing service quality; and, due to values such as justice and solidarity, essential in that kind of organizations, the service delivering process assumes special relevance, being many times more relevant than the results achieved.

In this thesis, I seek to advance our knowledge about the factors that make people start and stop volunteer work, thus shedding light on the capacity of volunteering and voluntary associations to foster social cohesion. In particular, my goal is twofold: first, to reveal to what extent voluntary associations function as meeting places for people from different social backgrounds, and second, to assess the resilience of civic participation in the face of labor market experiences that might undermine such engagement. I make three core contributions to the literature on voluntary association involvement. First, I pay special attention to the organizational contexts in which volunteers are embedded. Second, I adopt a dynamic approach, analyzing decisions to start and stop volunteering. Third, I attempt to disentangle alternative mechanisms that could drive the associations observed between volunteering and its potential determinants. Analyzing data from The Netherlands and the United States, my findings expose limits to the integrative capacity of voluntary association involvement. As it turns out, the civic landscape is strongly segregated. People tend to sort into voluntary associations where they mostly meet people with similar characteristics as themselves. Such sorting occurs along multiple social dimensions, including educational attainment, religiosity, gender, and ethnicity. This constrains the opportunities for building relationships that cut across existing social boundaries. Indeed, these sorting processes can reproduce in the civic domain fault lines that dominate other spheres of life. Furthermore, civic engagement and participation in the labor market are shown to be strongly intertwined, with the former breaking down when labor force exits occur. Voluntary association involvement is, therefore, of limited value for drawing labor force outsiders into public life. However, this chain of events does not necessarily unfold, as long as labor force outsiders retain aspirations to participate in social life.

In nonprofit organizations (NPOs) volunteers often work alongside paid workers. Such a coproduction setting can lead to tension between the two worker groups. This paper examines for the first time if and how volunteers in uence the separation of paid employees, and thus it contributes to the debate over whether volunteers can substitute paid workers. Using Austrian data on an organizational level we find a significant impact of volunteers on the separations of paid workers in NPOs facing increased competition. These findings support the assumption that a partial substitution effect exists between paid workers and volunteers.

Nonprofit organizations play an important role in improving their communities. Their ability to meet community needs can be limited due to lack of diversity in their boards of directors, which can also affect equity, performance, and social justice. Procedures for harmonizing the diversity of nonprofit boards with their served community demographics are not well understood. This Delphi study investigated what strategies and practices nonprofit organizations could employ to promote greater diversity in their boards of directors. The study'€™s conceptual framework was based on the theory of diversity management. Twenty-five participants from various nonprofit boards answered open-ended questions in a 3-round through SurveyMonkey. Secondary data were obtained from each participant'€™s nonprofits to provide insight into their practices, policies, and records. These documents worked as substantiation for participant claims. Analysis of the data revealed 6 themes: getting to know the community, involving the community, widening the network to include more groups of people, accurate assessment of the community, creating representation and gaining insider perspective, and having a pool of candidates and board members fit for the position. These themes show a diversity-based strategy for the overall success of a nonprofit organization, which is based on how effectively a nonprofit board of directors establishes networks and maintains positive relationships with their served communities. The results of this study can foster positive social change by illustrating how increasing the diversity of a nonprofit board can enhance organizational effectiveness, extend the organization'€™s reach, enable the organization to serve its chosen communities better, and reduce socioeconomic inequality through new perspectives.