Centering participants in third sector research

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Despite calls to center the individuals and communities served by nonprofits, a review of existing research shows that our understanding of nonprofits is largely based on executive directors, volunteers, and funders (Benjamin 2021). Meanwhile, rising evidence of upwards accountability, mission drift, lack of representation, and declining civic engagement raise concerns regarding the roles and effectiveness of third sector organizations. How would our analysis of nonprofits--including how they are led, managed and how they have an impact--change if we started with participants? Participants are the individuals, families and communities who seek out nonprofits to address some issue and are the intended beneficiaries of nonprofit action.

While research on the third sector may solicit feedback from participants, much of that research fails to understand how individuals experience their organizations beyond satisfaction with a particular program (Benjamin, 2021 Cottam, 2018). And, by focusing on programs, studies can miss the work that goes into social change. For example, staff-constituent relational work and constituent experiences of social change organizations tend to go missing or are inadequately captured by most social impact measurement models (Benjamin, 2008, 2012, 2021; Benjamin & Campbell, 2015). Meanwhile, constituent agency, constituent preferences, and the importance of "co-determination work” in service encounters tend to be undervalued or unaccounted for in performance measurement frameworks (Benjamin & Campbell, 2015; Wellens & Jegers, 2014). In addition, individuals and communities regularly interact with a variety of organizations and individuals that can enhance or inhibit progress towards a personal goal or objective (Benjamin, Ebrahim, & Gugerty 2023].

Understanding organizations and programs from a constituent point of view seems particularly urgent as recent analysis demonstrates how little scholarly research in third sector studies focuses on the perspective and experience of constituents (Benjamin, 2020). What if third sector interventions centered the experiences of the individuals and communities, they set out to serve? How might a constituent-centered orientation shape ideas and theories about governance, management, advocacy, and evaluation in the third sector?

This panel features four studies that center the experiences of the individuals and communities that third sector organizations set out to serve. In their respective presentations, each paper author will center participant voices through the sharing of direct quotes, recorded videos, and/or live feedback (via Zoom).

References

Benjamin, L. M. (2008). Bearing More Risk for Results: Performance Accountability and Nonprofit Relational Work. Administration & Society, 39(8), 959–983.

Benjamin, L. M. (2012). Nonprofit Organizations and Outcome Measurement: From Tracking Program Activities to Focusing on Frontline Work. American Journal of Evaluation, 33(3),

Benjamin, L. M. (2020). Bringing beneficiaries more centrally into nonprofit management education and research. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Scopus.

Benjamin, L. M. (2021). Beyond programs: Toward a fuller picture of beneficiaries in nonprofit evaluation. In P. Dahler-Larsen (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Evaluation (pp. 81–103). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Benjamin & Campbell, (2015). “Nonprofit Performance: Accounting for the Agency of Clients.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(5), 988–1006. Also refers to preliminary findings from my dissertation research.

Benjamin, L. M., Ebrahim, A., & Gugerty, M. K. (forthcoming). Nonprofit Organizations and the Evaluation of Social Impact: A Research Agenda to Advance Theory and Practice. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 50th Anniversary Issue.

Cottam, H. (2019). Radical Help: How We Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State. Little, Brown

Wellens, L., & Jegers, M. (2014). Effective governance in nonprofit organizations: A literature based multiple stakeholder approach. European Management Journal, 32(2), 223–243.

Sub Unit

• Measuring Third Sector output and impact

Moderator

• Lehn Benjamin, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Individual Presentations

• When having a voice is not enough: Acting upon older people’s expressions of evaluation as a pathway to strengthening accountability in aged care settings - Kylie Kingston, Queensland University of Technology; Belinda Luke, Queensland University of Technology

• Do beneficiaries’ perceived control matter? Help-seeking preferences in nonprofit and for-profit social enterprises - Meng-Han Ho, National Central University, Taiwan

• Decolonizing Benevolence Assistance: How organizational leaders are learning and unlearning to shift power dynamics in social service delivery - Anita J. Anglade, IUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

• Participant perspectives on organizational factors influencing their decision to engage with a nonprofit: A mixed methods study in Vietnam - Dana R R.H. Doan; Lehn Benjamin, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy