This article begins to fill gaps that currently exist between research on the governance of nonprofit organizations and research on public governance and focuses on how nonprofit governance research can benefit from insights in the public governance literature. As boundaries between nonprofit governance and public governance are increasingly fluid, our theoretical understanding as well as our empirical work on governance must expand to encompass these new relationships. The article summarizes the extant empirical literature on nonprofit governance and compares this research to emerging work on public governance. Drawing on this literature, the article specifically calls for research on nonprofit governance that (a) gives greater attention to the links between organizational governance and the public interest, (b) incorporates a broader view of governance as a process engaging multiple actors and taking place at multiple levels, and (c) links governance to accountability for results.
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Melissa M. Stone, PhD, is the Gross Family Professor of Nonprofit Management and directs the Humphrey Institute's Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center. Her teaching and research focuses on governance and strategic management of nonprofit organizations, government-nonprofit relationships, and cross-sector partnerships as policy implementation tools.
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Francie Ostrower, PhD, is a senior research associate at the Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy and serves as the principal investigator of the Urban Institute National Survey of Nonprofit Governance study. Her research focuses on nonprofit governance, foundations, and cultural organizations.
