...There are many organizations out there that do a lot for people out of the good in their own heart, while at the same time asking for almost nothing in return. Nonprofit organizations, specifically, have many different causes which might seem to clearly differentiate one from the other (things such as contributing to a community’s resources, activities available in a town, medical aid, finding people homes, etc.). All these groups alike, however, have one outstandingly prominent goal: to take action and help others. If I was to volunteer for any nonprofit organization, especially from those that I’m already familiar with and know about, I would most certainly volunteer for helping Friends of Libraries, Inc.. The main reasons for this are simple; I personally really enjoy reading and would like to be able to promote learning in my area, which makes libraries very important. Having a location nearby where someone is able to check out books freely that they might not have been able to have access to is very important....
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...An organization I would fund today would be a nonprofit organization that helps animals. If I had all the money in the world, I would give money to every nonprofit animal organization. I am a huge animal lover and I would do anything to try to save animals and find them new homes. I do not understand how anyone could hurt an animal. They are just innocent, lovable, furry friends and people who abuse them break my heart. Also, bringing awareness to people to get their animals fixed helps with homeless animals. It can cost some money to get your pet fixed, but it costs even more money if that animal has babies of its own. Most of the time those animals end up homeless, which can then lead to more baby animals being born and the cycle just continues....
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...is a summary of a paper presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action in November 1999. This paper was submitted to the peer-reviewed academic journal Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly for consideration. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬_______________________ Nonprofits’ Use of the Media in the Influence of Public Policy: Is there a correlation between exposure in the media and positive results? DAVID A. RICE STRATEGIC POLICY CONCEPTS Abstract: The extent to which interest groups and the media influence policymakers has been a popular topic of research. However, there has been little research on interest groups’ attempts to use the media for the specific purpose of influencing policymakers. This paper examines the attempts of nonprofit advocates in Massachusetts to use the media to influence public policymaking. The research was conducted through a survey of policymakers, the media, and registered lobbyists for nonprofit and for-profit interest groups in Massachusetts. The results of the survey indicate that the majority of nonprofit advocates do not use the media as a tactic to influence policymakers primarily because they do not believe policymakers are very influenced by the media. The results also found that policymakers would view nonprofit advocates as being more influential if they frequently obtained media coverage of the issues important to them. The paper posits that the ...
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...Organization of a book fair I have chosen to do my research paper on the organization of the book fair for a non-profit company in a major United States city. This book fair will take place in San Francisco, California. There are many non-profit organizations here in San Francisco that could use the help of a fundraiser. There are schools, health organizations, medical clinics, homeless shelters, and food banks to name a few. Successful planning and organizing a fundraiser will make this project successful. To begin the planning stage of this fundraiser, I will need to do much research. This is going to be a book fundraiser. Looking at cost effective ways to hold this fundraiser is crucial since the outcome is to raise money for a particular organization. I will first look at a venue. Is it less expensive to hold a fundraiser on the Internet or is it more cost efficient to hold it a location. Having a fundraiser on the Internet does not seem a personable to me. However, it might be more cost efficient. Holding a fundraiser at a physical location seems that it would be more successful. The advertising and promotion of a fundraiser are just as important. Getting the most exposure to the public will help with the success of my fundraiser. I will need to research to find out if advertising and promoting this book fundraiser is more or less expensive than with actual physical advertising. I am leaning more to the physical...
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...ABSTRACT The processes and outcomes of a service learning project conducted by a group of five students and engaged with a nonprofit organization are described in this paper. The processes and outcomes are evaluated with respect to the effectiveness of service learning as an educational means and the contribution to the nonprofit sector made by service learning initiatives. The findings include the benefit of the initial ambiguity of the service learning project and the benefit of the project outputs to the nonprofit agency. It is concluded that researchers may need to figure out the absolute relationship between initial ambiguity and the effectiveness of a service learning project and that between project outputs and the benefits received by the organization concerned. It is also concluded that researchers need to study how to keep participants’ passion towards the nonprofit sector after completion of their service learning project. KEYWORDS Service learning, volunteering, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises 1. INTRODUCTION The primary goal of this paper is to describe the processes and outcomes of a service learning project conducted by a group of five students and engaged with a nonprofit organization. The processes and outcomes are evaluated with respect to the effectiveness of service learning as an educational means and the contribution to the nonprofit sector...
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...edu Katy Kaestner 、Trinity University、kkaestne@trinity.edu ABSTRACT The processes and outcomes of a service learning project conducted by a group of five students and engaged with a nonprofit organization are described in this paper. The processes and outcomes are evaluated with respect to the effectiveness of service learning as an educational means and the contribution to the nonprofit sector made by service learning initiatives. The findings include the benefit of the initial ambiguity of the service learning project and the benefit of the project outputs to the nonprofit agency. It is concluded that researchers may need to figure out the absolute relationship between initial ambiguity and the effectiveness of a service learning project and that between project outputs and the benefits received by the organization concerned. It is also concluded that researchers need to study how to keep participants’ passion towards the nonprofit sector after completion of their service learning project. KEYWORDS Service learning, volunteering, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises 1. INTRODUCTION The primary goal of this paper is to describe the processes and outcomes of a service learning project conducted by a group of five students and engaged with a nonprofit organization. The processes and outcomes are evaluated with respect to the...
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...26, 2011 NPO 5080-01 Final Paper Dr. Christine Cugliari Introduction: The experience of workplace stress has been subject to a huge amount of research and interest. In American culture, it seems that stress is a regular part of everyday life. Emphasis is often put on getting many things done as quickly and efficiently as possible, even at the sacrifice of physical and emotional health. With the continuous introduction of new technology comes the expectation that projects should be completed even more quickly and more efficiently, and it seems that stress levels may only continue to increase, especially in the workplace. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (1999, p.5), “Three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on the job stress than generations ago.” Without taking note of stress levels and properly reducing unhealthy stress, America will continue to see a rise in related mental and physical illness. Perhaps it will become even more crucial to study stress, particularly in the workplace, and to identify proper interventions. This prospective is no different in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit organizations play an important role in such diverse areas as arts and culture, sports and recreation, literacy and skills development programs, health services, religious activity, and political advocacy. There has been growing interest in examining the contributions made by the nonprofit sector to the economy and society...
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...Research paper Team Research Paper Fundraising for a nonprofit organization in a weak economy is very uncertain; not many individuals or businesses have the financial means to lend money. Thus, it is imperative to use all approaches to fundraising. Fundraising for a nonprofit organization typically involves applying for loans, grants, and using other forms of government and public assistance. When implementing non-traditional approaches to fundraising, it is important to use every possible means of government assistance, community support, and family contribution methods because there are limited the country’s economic status. Raising money based on contributions, sponsorships, personal investments, seeking family support, applying for a loan, and obtaining government grants are all effective ways of fundraising for a nonprofit organization. Another way of fundraising for a nonprofit organization is to use creative ways of providing a service to the community. Community fundraising requires detailed planning stages such as creating a plans and goals, picking a team, knowing the audience or customer, targeting the audience, and showing appreciation...
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...Directors (BOD) is absolutely essential to the success of the organization. The BOD for this organization is not unlike any other not-for-profit boards with less than 10 years in age. The boards of these organizations sometimes consist of inexperienced and unknowledgeable management professionals. New board members are excited to make good decisions and evoke proper change within the organization. They soon find out change is not quick and results aren’t seen over night. Due to this reality board members with tenure can become complacent and thereby miss opportunities for organizational growth. This can create barriers to performance for young board members and old board members alike. This paper argues the necessity of continual board development using assessment methodologies. It takes into consideration current knowledge on why and how development can detour ineffective job performance amongst board participants. This paper creates a possible framework for BOD development in non-profits. OUTLINE Introduction and Overview 4 Evidence or Support Statements 5 Warrants 6 Counterclaim Statement 7 Rebuttal Statement 8 Conclusion Statement 9 References 11 Introduction and Overview Board members are a significant asset to organizations. They make decisions based on strategic need and corporate responsibility. Rarely though do new members arrive on the board with years of experience in the nonprofit sector (Rubenstein and O’Flynn, 2006). The literature displays...
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...Financial Disclosure Management by Nonprofit Organizations1 Ranjani Krishnan, Michelle H. Yetman, Robert J. Yetman* Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824. Tippie College of Business, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52240 ______________________________________________________________________________ Abstract This paper examines how nonprofit organizations respond to incentives to manage their publicly available financial information. Prior research identifies two operating ratios donors commonly use to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofits (i.e., the program service ratio, defined as the fraction of total expenses committed to advancing the charitable mission of the organization, and the fundraising ratio, defined as the ratio of fundraising expenses to donations revenue). Nonprofit managers have an incentive to over-report the expenses classified as program services and under-report the expenses classified as administrative and fundraising in order to improve these ratios. We examine whether nonprofits respond to these incentives, and we find evidence consistent with opportunistic cost shifting to improve the program service and fundraising ratios. Additional analysis finds that smaller nonprofits that are more reliant on donations revenue manipulate their operating ratios to a greater extent. JEL classification: M4; L3 Key words: Nonprofit organizations, earnings management, disclosure, hospitals. __...
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...Role of Nonprofit Enterprise [The book version] by Andreas Ortmann* & Mark Schlesinger** Abstract In this chapter we examine the trust hypothesis: the proposition that information asymmetries between providers and consumers of services can explain the existence of nonprofit enterprise in certain markets. We argue that this hypothesis, in order to be viable, has to meet three challenges: (1) the de jure inability of nonprofits to distribute profits to shareholders and/or management must affect incentives within the nonprofit firm in ways that are compatible with trustworthiness (Aincentive compatibility challenge@), (2) nonprofit behavior must not be adulterated by individuals taking advantage of the perceived trustworthiness (Aadulteration challenge@), and (3) nonprofit status must be treated as a reliable predictor of organizational behavior by consumers, when the reputation of individual firms is not seen as reliable (Areputational ubiquity challenge@). We propose that the trust hypothesis stands on shaky ground. It can be sustained only under particular conditions that have been neither carefully described in theory nor subject to empirical assessment. The available evidence, patchy and inadequate as it is, seems to suggest that there are ownership-related differences in the organizational behavior of non-profits and for-profits. However, there is little evidence that these differences can be connected to trust per se or provide a rationale for the existence of nonprofit ownership...
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...number of people working in the nonprofit sector has soared in America within the past 20 years. Even though memberships in unions have become stagnated, unions are increasingly targeting nonprofit employees to unionize. Unions are targeting nonprofits organization because sentiments about unions runs very strong in the for profit arena, and nonprofit employees are more in line with seeking what is fair and just. As the union tries to unionize We Care, as the Executive Director it is my responsibility to asset whether are not a union is the right thing for the organization. This paper will discuss the information that will be presented to the board based on my research on the whether or not We Care should unionize. In this paper the pros and cons of unionize will be discussed and ending with a recommendation on the whether or not to allow We Care to become a union shop to the Board. Unionize Yes or No? Introduction A considerable number of nonprofit staff members work in the field because they want to bring about change in their community and city. Many nonprofit workers coach and mentor the participants in seeking union jobs. It is through these avenues that they learn how unions can help increase wages and begin to wonder if a union would be a good thing in their organization. Some union such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal and Service Employees international Union view recruiting nonprofit organizations to unionize as a key to their survival...
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...Using a Balanced Scorecard in a Nonprofit Organization Joel Zimmerman, Ph.D. Director of Consulting Services Creative Direct Response This paper is part of the CDR White Paper Collection. It is maintained and distributed by the Nonprofit Learning Center. 2004, Creative Direct Response, Inc. USING A BALANCED SCORECARD IN A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION Using a Balanced Scorecard in a Nonprofit Organization Joel Zimmerman, Ph.D., Director of Consulting Services Creative Direct Response, Inc. Since its invention in the 1990s, the balanced scorecard has won acceptance as a management tool in the for-profit sector. Now, nonprofits are becoming familiar with, and trying to use, balanced scorecards. This white paper explains what balanced scorecards are and gives critically important tips about how to adapt them successfully into the nonprofit world. “Balanced Scorecard” has been a corporate management buzzword for about a decade. Like many management movements before it, balanced scorecard is migrating from corporate management into the offices of nonprofit management. The transition of a balanced scorecard concept from for-profit to nonprofit organizations is not direct. The basic ideas behind creating a balanced scorecard are as valid for nonprofits as they are for corporate businesses, but the implementation of this idea needs to be modified a bit to make it work effectively in the nonprofit world. In this article, we will look at what a balanced scorecard is all about...
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...An important aspect of establishing funds for nonprofits is grant writing. Grant writing can be a very long and tedious process. Getting a grant takes time, patients, and great writing skills. I have family members who work for nonprofits that dread what I call “grant writing season” it’s that time of year in a nonprofit company when it is time to start writing for as many grants as you can get. The first step in grant writing; the nonprofit company must research what funding is available for their type of nonprofit. This is a very important step; most nonprofits rely on grants to help them in some way pay for the next year. If the company does not do their research correctly they could miss a great opportunity. Interestingly enough, not only does the federal government offer grants but so do professional organizations, private industries, and private foundations (Berger & Moore, 2011, pp. 167-168). Therefore, the grant writer should make sure they do enough research on all the possible grants that would be offered for the nonprofit. After the grant writer has decided which grants might benefit the company, they then have to go through and write each grant individually. This is due to the fact that each funder will have different objectives, and goals, the company must make sure that all of their ideas a goals line up with the funders. If this is not the case then the funder will not give the grant to that nonprofit company. There are several ways a grant writer can make sure...
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...Niagara University Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies "Building a Bridge to Bulgaria" A US-Bulgarian Cultural Exchange Organization Research Capstone Paper IDS601 Members of the committee: Dr. Chambers, T. Leibowitz, A. Dr. Mayer, S. Research paper presented by: Mariya Cherneva April 29, 2011 Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 3 II. Introduction 5 1.0 Why would someone would like to study abroad? 6 2.0 A Literature review of study abroad participants 11 3.0 USBCE Resource interviews 14 4.0 Specific information on Bulgarian stident trends 17 5.0 Creating a successful non-profit organization 19 6.0 USBCE – Created a specilized Organization 43 7.0 USBCE identifies its major outsidide organization 44 8.0 What role will USBCE play in the Work/Travel program 47 III Conclussion 51 IV Bibliography 53 V Appendix 1 VI Appendix 1 I. Executive Summary Background Having been the direct beneficiary of a few different types of cultural exchange programs I appreciate the value such an organization provides. In my lifetime I have been able to travel to, study and work in more than five different countries. My hope is to be able to use my experiences to create a cultural exchange organization to assist students with international study as well as a broad cultural experience. A program like this will help students to gain a global perspective and cultivate a global network...
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