Nonprofit Organizations in an Age of Uncertainty: A Study of Growth & Decline (Social Institutions and Social Change)

The purpose of this panel study of nonprofit organizations in the metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, over the period from 1980 to 1994 is to explain why some nonprofit organizations grew and others shrank, and why some NPOs survived and others died during this decade and a half. The authors are particularly concerned with the different tactics or strategies employed by the NPOs and the consequences that these choices had for the organization.

The research yielded some striking results for understanding NPO performance. Galaskiewicz and Bielefeld have been able to explain why some organizations use different strategies; to describe the effects of strategy use on growth and decline of revenues in different funding streams (government, earned, and donated income); and to account for the unintended effects of strategy use on organizational climate and structure. Survival

and growth depend upon the organization's ability to juggle its commitments to donors, grantmakers, members, and service populations, while trying to keep costs down and maintain worker morale. The authors show that often these tasks are at odds with one another, and this impasse keeps many NPOs in a constant state of emergency and management crisis. Whether or not organizations prosper in such an environment depends upon their choice of tactic or strategic response.

Not much is known about the long-term behavior of the charitable and philanthropic organizations that constitute a "third sector" of the economy. This book admirably fills that void. It should speak not only to students of organizational theory who want to understand more about how NPOs function, but also to practitioners, donors, and government agencies concerned with the tactics and strategies elected by those entrusted with funding and planning the work of the organizations studied here, and others like them elsewhere.