Nonprofit social service organizations face unique challenges in attending to the needs of their various stakeholders. This article uses data from a sample of nonprofit organizations in Michigan to examine how well nonprofits manage multiple stakeholder demands. Findings indicate that nonprofits generally balance organizational time and attention to the needs of both clients and funding agencies. However, a small percentage of nonprofits devote disproportionate time to funding agencies at the expense of client-related activities. Factors that increase this likelihood include financial dependence on for-profit corporations, a racial mismatch between the board and agency clientele, and board dominance by economic elites.
Abzug, R., & Webb, N. (1999). Relationships between nonprofit and for-profit organizations: A stakeholder perspective. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28, 416-431.
2.
Berman, S.L., Wicks, A.C., Kotha, S., & Jones, T.M. (1999). Does stakeholder orientation matter? The relationship between stakeholder management models and firm financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 488-506.
3.
Clarkson, M.B. (1995). A stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review , 20, 92-117.
4.
Daley, J.M., & Marsiglia, F.F. (2001). Social diversity within nonprofit boards: Members' view on status and issues. Journal of the Community Development Society, 32, 290-309.
5.
Dicke, L.A., & Ott, J.S. (1999). Public agency accountability in human service contracting. Public Productivity and Management Review, 22, 502-516.
6.
Dillman, D. (2002). Mail and electronic surveys: The tailored design method. New York: Wiley.
7.
Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20, 65-91.
8.
Evan, W.F., & Freeman, R.E. (1993). A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation: Kantian capitalism. In T. Beauchamp & N. Bowie (Eds.), Ethical theory and business (4th ed., pp. 97-106). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Freeman, R.E., & Evan, W.F. (1990). Corporate governance: A stakeholder interpretation . Journal of Behavioral Economics, 19, 337-359.
11.
Freeman, R.E., & Gilbert, D.R., Jr. (1988). Corporate strategy and the search for ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
12.
Friedmann, J. (1966). Two concepts of urbanization: A comment. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 1(4), 78-79.
13.
Gioia, D.A. (1999). Practicability, paradigms, and problems in stakeholder theorizing. Academy of Management Review, 24, 228-232.
14.
Green, J.C., & Griesinger, D.W. (1996). Board performance and organizational effectiveness in social service organizations. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 6, 381-401.
15.
Grønbjerg, K.A. (2001). Market, politics, and charity: Nonprofits in the political economy. In J. S Ott (Ed.), The nature of the nonprofit sector (pp. 217-232). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
16.
Hansmann, H. (1980). The role of nonprofit enterprise. Yale Law Journal, 89, 835-901.
17.
Independent Sector. (2002). The new nonprofit almanac and desk reference: The essential facts and figures for managers, researchers, and volunteers. New York: Wiley.
18.
Jawahar, I.M., & Gary L. McLaughlin . (2001). Toward a Descriptive Stakeholder Theory: An Organizational Life Cycle Approach. Academy of Management Review, 26, 397-414.
19.
Jones T., & Wicks, A. (1999). Convergent stakeholder theory. Academy of Management Review, 24, 206-221.
20.
Keating, E.K., & Frumkin, P. (2003). Reengineering nonprofit financial accountability: Toward a more reliable foundation for regulation. Public Administration Review, 63, 3-15.
21.
Kramer, R.M. (1994). Voluntary agencies and the contract culture: Dream or nightmare? Social Service Review, 68, 33-60.
22.
Light, P.C. (2002). The content of their character: The state of the nonprofit workforce. Nonprofit Quarterly, 9(3), 6-16.
23.
Lenkowsky, L. (2002). Foundations and corporate philanthropy. In S. Salamon (Ed.), The state of nonprofit America (pp. 355-386). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
24.
Marvel, M.K., & Marvel, H.P. (2007). Outsourcing oversight: A comparison of monitoring for in-house and contracted services. Public Administration Review, 67, 521-530.
25.
Meier, K.J. (1993). Latinos and representative bureaucracy: Testing the Thompson and Henderson hypotheses. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 3, 393-414.
26.
Meier, K.J., & Bohte, J. (2001). Structure and discretion: Missing links in representative bureaucracy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 11, 455-470.
27.
National Council of Nonprofit Associations. ( 2007). Executive Director's compensation report.
28.
Niskanen, W. (1971). Bureaucracy and representative government. Hawthorne, NY: Aldin de Gruyter.
29.
Ott, J.S. (2001). The blending and blurring of the sectors. In J. S. Ott (Ed.), The nature of the nonprofit sector (pp. 179-189). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
30.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. (1978). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. New York: Harper & Row.
31.
Romzek, B.S., & Johnston, J.M. (1999). Reforming Medicaid through contracting: The nexus of implementation and organizational culture. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 1, 107-139.
32.
Salamon, L.M. (1995). Partners in public service: Government-nonprofit relations in the modern welfare state. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
33.
Salamon, L.M. (2001). Scope and structure: The anatomy of America's nonprofit sector, In J. S. Ott (Ed.), The nature of the nonprofit sector (pp. 23-39). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
34.
Salamon, L.M. (2002). The state of nonprofit America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute.
35.
Smith, S.R., & Lipsky, M. (1993). Nonprofits for hire: The welfare state in the age of contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
36.
Sowa, J.E., & Selden, S.C. (2003). Administrative discretion and active representation: An expansion of the theory of representative bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 63, 700-710.
37.
Stone, C. (1989). Regime politics: Governing Atlanta 1946-1988. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
38.
Vogel, R.K., & Harrigan, J.J. (2007). Political change in the metropolis. New York: Pearson Longman .
39.
Wang, J., & Dewhirst, H.D. (1992). Board of directors and stakeholder orientation. Journal of Ethics, 11, 115-123.
40.
Weisbrod, B.A. (1977). The voluntary nonprofit sector: An economic analysis . Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
41.
Weisbrod, B.A. (1988). The nonprofit economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
42.
Weisbrod, B.A. (1998). To profit or not to profit: The commercial transformation of the nonprofit sector. New York: Cambridge University Press.
43.
Weisbrod, B.A., & Schlesinger, M. (1986). Public, private, nonprofit ownership and the response to asymmetric information: The case of nursing homes. In S. Rose-Ackerman (Ed.), The economics of nonprofit institutions (pp. 133-151). New York: Oxford University Press.
44.
Wirth, L. (1938). Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology, 44, 1-24.
