Annotated Readings 1.1
Childre, J. (2015, Jul. 3). Managing ‘Nonprofits’ vs ‘For Profits’: What’s the difference? Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation. University of Cambridge, Judge Business School. Cambridge Social Innovation Blog post.
This article is from the perspective of an executive who transferred from the private sector to the purpose sector before returning to the private sector. Commencing from the perspective that ‘management is management,’ the article discusses the nature of each in terms of stakeholder relationships and complexities. It concludes with questions that executives may wish to consider at the commencement of this course.
Salamon et al., 1999: Chapter 1, Civil Society in Comparative Perspective. The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. Baltimore, MD.
The authors provide an overview of the state and nature of the nonprofit sector across 22 countries at the turn of the century. The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Report sought to fill the gap of a dearth of quantitative, comparative knowledge of the sector by documenting, explaining, and evaluating the size, structure, and scope of organizations using a social scientific quantitative approach, interviewing sector professionals from countries around the world. Significant findings included the sector’s size in 1995 being US$1.1 trillion in revenues, with 19 million paid employees, with 28 per cent of the population contributing time. These figures are higher when including religious organizations. However, there are significant differences between nations and nonprofit purposes. It also found that service fees or government contracts generally fund nonprofits, and at the time, growth was high. The authors concluded that nonprofits were a significant contributor to regional economies and employment markets and that the trajectory of the nonprofit sector depended upon regional and specialization needs.
Srinath, I. (2020, Sep. 27). Why Can’t NGOs Be More Business-Like? Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy. Ashoka University. India. Blog Post.
This article from India is the perspective of a corporate-to-nonprofit MBA and their discovery of the need for a different way of thinking about efficiency and effectiveness when entering the nonprofit environment. This short article discusses how corporate thinking can be a problem for people new to the nonprofit world whose experience, skills, and qualifications can help and hinder. The author promotes a balance by learning about and understanding the unique operational and strategic nature of nonprofit organizations and the nonprofit sector.