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    Nonprofit OrganizationsRemove Nonprofit Organizations →

    New research on nonprofit organizations from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including better measures of nonprofit performance, and how to best incentivize prosocial behavior to boost donations and volunteerism.
    Page 1 of 53 Results →
    • 03 Jan 2023
    • What Do You Think?

    How Would the Leadership Style of Girl Scouts' Frances Hesselbein Fare Today?

    Re: James L. Heskett

    Frances Hesselbein's mission-driven leadership helped shift the nonprofit's image, and expand and diversify its membership. James Heskett reflects on the late executive director's reputation for storytelling and change management. Would her tactics work today? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 15 Aug 2022
    • Book

    University of the Future: Finding the Next World Leaders in Higher Ed

    by Dina Gerdeman

    Which universities will step into the void as American colleges decline? In the book Empires of Ideas, William Kirby explores how the history of higher education in the US, China, and Germany might shape its future.

    • 07 Jun 2021
    • Book

    9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

    by Danielle Kost

    Seeking donations can feel like begging. In this excerpt from Effective Fundraising, F. Warren McFarlan offers advice to help trustees approach prospective donors with confidence. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 02 Feb 2021
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Nonprofits in Good Times and Bad Times

    by Christine L. Exley, Nils H. Lehr, and Stephen J. Terry

    Tax returns from millions of US nonprofits reveal that charities do not expand during bad times, when need is the greatest. Although they are able to smooth the swings of their activities more than for-profit organizations, nonprofits exhibit substantial sensitivity to economic cycles.

    • 05 Jan 2021
    • Cold Call Podcast

    Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

    Re: Ashley V. Whillans

    For child and family social workers, coping with the hardships of children and parents is part of the job. But that can cause a lot of stress. Is it possible for financially constrained organizations to improve social workers’ well-being using non-cash rewards, recognition, and other strategies from behavioral science? Assistant Professor Ashley Whillans describes the experience of Chief Executive Michael Sanders’ at the UK’s What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, as he led a research program aimed at improving the morale of social workers in her case, “The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 14 Dec 2020
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Nonprofit Boards: It is Time to Lift Your Gaze and See the System

    by Shamal Dass, Kristy Muir, and V. Kasturi Rangan

    Not every organization should attempt to solve problems at a system level, but can become more aware of systemic issues, ensuring that solutions dovetail into the macrosystem for best collective impact.

    • 26 May 2020
    • Cold Call Podcast

    Can the ‘Cummings Way’ Live On after the Founder Retires?

    Re: Christina R. Wing

    After 50 years at the helm of Cummings Properties, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Cummings is contemplating retirement. Christina R. Wing and Cummings discuss what's next for both the family business and foundation that he built. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 08 May 2020
    • In Practice

    Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

    by Danielle Kost

    Experts from Harvard Business School's Social Enterprise Initiative offer advice to nonprofits struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 28 Jun 2018
    • Cold Call Podcast

    L.A. Philharmonic Shows the American Symphony Orchestra Isn’t Dead Yet

    Re: Rohit Deshpande

    Like many American symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic seemed dying on the vine, unable to attract younger audiences or new sponsors. Then new CEO Deborah Borda came aboard with a plan to revive the brand. Rohit Deshpande discusses his case study on the turnaround. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 19 Oct 2017
    • Research & Ideas

    How Charitable Organizations Can Thwart Excuses for Not Giving

    by Michael Blanding

    Charitable organizations provide all kinds of reasons for donors to give money—but sometimes their messaging does just the opposite, shows research by Christine Exley. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 24 Jul 2017
    • Research & Ideas

    People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

    by Carmen Nobel

    People are irrationally motivated to complete arbitrary sets of tasks, donations, or purchases—and organizations can take advantage of that, according to new research by Kate Barasz, Leslie John, Elizabeth Keenan, and Michael Norton. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 15 Jan 2016
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Incentives for Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Reputations

    by Christine L. Exley

    This study documents how small monetary incentives discourage volunteering when they are public and thus introduce a “greedy” signal. The discouragement from this greedy signal, however, is less pronounced among volunteers with public reputations, or those who are likely known not to be too greedy.

    • 21 Dec 2015
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Wage Elasticities in Working and Volunteering: The Role of Reference Points in a Laboratory Study

    by Christine Exley & Stephen Terry

    Nonprofit organizations often rely on reference points—explicit or implicit targets and goals—to encourage more effort from volunteers. This study finds that effort does tend to cluster around reference levels, so this may be perceived as a very effective strategy. Yet reference levels can potentially backfire: in response to higher volunteer wages or productivity, volunteers may reduce their effort so as to meet the reference level.

    • 01 Dec 2015
    • Research & Ideas

    What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

    by Carmen Nobel

    It’s no easy feat to manage hybrid organizations, which combine the social mission of a nonprofit with the revenue model of a for-profit business. Julie Battilana and colleagues explain how hybrids can find success with a business model dubbed “spaces of negotiation.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 30 Nov 2015
    • Research & Ideas

    Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

    by Carmen Nobel

    Elizabeth A. Keenan and colleagues find that charitable donors are willing to stomach the idea of overhead costs—as long as they know someone else’s donation is covering them. A field study helped one organization nearly triple its solicited donations. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 04 Nov 2015
    • Working Paper Summaries

    Do People Who Care About Others Cooperate More? Experimental Evidence from Relative Incentive Pay

    by Dylan Minor, Pablo Hernandez & Dana Sisak

    This paper explores how the degree to which individuals care about other workers affects their own performance when faced with relative performance pay.

    • 20 Aug 2014
    • Research & Ideas

    Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a Social Media Blockbuster

    by John Deighton

    Most companies should envy the financial and brand awareness brought about by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The campaign's key ingredient, says John Deighton, is that participants enhance their personal capital in performance of a good deed. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 03 Sep 2013
    • Working Paper Summaries

    How the Zebra Got Its Stripes: Imprinting of Individuals and Hybrid Social Ventures

    by Matthew Lee & Julie Battilana

    Creating hybrid organizations that combine existing organizational forms is a complex process. Given the legitimacy challenges facing hybrid organizations, why are they created in the first place? The authors focus on the role of "environmental imprinting" on individuals: this means the persistent effects that individuals' environments during sensitive periods have on their subsequent behaviors. After constructing and analyzing a novel dataset of over 700 founders of social ventures, all guided by a social welfare logic, the authors suggest that individual imprinting helps to explain why an entrepreneur founding a social venture might create a hybrid by incorporating a secondary, commercial logic. Overall, the paper contributes to the understanding of hybrid organizations by providing the first large-scale, empirical examination of the antecedents of the widely-discussed type of hybrids that combine social welfare and commercial logics. Key concepts include: Environmental imprinting refers to the effects that characteristics of individuals' environments during sensitive periods have on their subsequent behaviors. Entrepreneurs' direct exposure to various work environments through their own experience influences their likelihood to create a new hybrid venture. The findings contribute to institutional theory more generally by showing how environmental imprints on individuals may enable divergence from current, institutionalized structures, as well as how the contours of such imprints may vary with characteristics such as tenure and type of exposure. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 12 Aug 2013
    • Research & Ideas

    ‘Hybrid’ Organizations a Difficult Bet for Entrepreneurs

    by Michael Blanding

    Hybrid organizations combine the social logic of a nonprofit with the commercial logic of a for-profit business, but are very difficult to finance. So why would anyone want to form one? Julie Battilana and Matthew Lee investigate. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

    • 27 Nov 2012
    • Working Paper Summaries

    No Margin, No Mission? A Field Experiment on Incentives for Pro-Social Tasks

    by Nava Ashraf, Oriana Bandiera & Kelsey Jack

    Organizations from large corporations to NGOs use a range of nonfinancial performance rewards to motivate their employees, and these rewards are highly valued. While theory has suggested mechanisms through which nonfinancial incentives can elicit employee effort, evidence on the mechanisms, and on their effectiveness relative to financial incentives, remains scarce. This paper helps to fill this gap by providing evidence from a collaboration with a public health organization based in Lusaka, Zambia, that recruits and trains hairdressers and barbers to sell condoms in their shops. This setting is representative of many health delivery programs in developing countries where embedded community agents are called upon to deliver services and products, but finding an effective way to motivate them remains a significant challenge. Findings show the effectiveness of financial and nonfinancial rewards for increasing sales of condoms. Agents who are offered nonfinancial rewards ("stars" in this setting) exert more effort than either those offered financial margins or those offered volunteer contracts. Key concepts include: Nonfinancial rewards can motivate agents in settings where there are limits to the use of financial incentives. Nonfinancial rewards elicit effort by leveraging the agents' pro-social motivation and by facilitating social comparisons among agents. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

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