Nonprofits and Government Funding: Diversity, Conformity, or Diverse Conformity

• In Event: Emerging Research on the Nonprofit Sector

Abstract

This paper explores how the racial composition of nonprofits’ boards and staff, along with their level of professionalization, affects their likelihood of securing government contracts, serving as both instrumental values and indicators of culturally conformity.

Existing literature has examined how community racial compositions influence nonprofit’s advocacy efforts or government’s support for nonprofits (Garrow, 2012; Kim and Mason, 2018). Governance literature has also investigated the relationship between board diversity and organizational outcomes like fiscal performance and fundraising success (Siciliano, 1996). However, little attention has been paid to how the racial compositions of board and staff affect nonprofits’ likelihood of securing public contracts.

This study addresses this gap using a conceptual framework that considers how internal diversity and professionalization enhance nonprofits’ ability to navigate government contracts and meet cultural expectations of socially deserving structures (Suárez and Hwang, 2013). It draws on data from Washington state nonprofits and administrative records and employs a variety of regression analyses.

Findings reveal that diversity and professionalization are positively associated with nonprofits’ likelihood of obtaining government contracts and the share of revenue from these contracts. However, nonprofits with predominantly white board members are more likely to receive government contracts and larger revenue shares, highlighting the needs to critically assess the role of “white governance” in shaping nonprofits’ funding outcomes.

References

Kim, Mirae, and Dyana P. Mason. 2018. Representation and diversity, advocacy, and nonprofit arts organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 47(1): 49-71.

Garrow, Eve E. 2014. Does race matter in government funding of nonprofit human service organizations? The interaction of neighborhood poverty and race. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 24:381-405.

Siciliano, Julie I. 1996. The relationship of board member diversity to organizational performance. Journal of Business Ethics 15(12): 1313-1320.

Suárez, David F., and Hokyu Hwang. 2013. Resource constraints or cultural conformity? Nonprofit relationships with businesses. Voluntas 24:581-605.

Authors

• Gowun Park, University of Hawaii
  Presenting Author

• David F Suarez, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Co-Author