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A cross-national study of a method for researching non-profit organisational effectiveness

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Abstract

Are there criteria that define non-profit organisation effectiveness? If the criteria can be identified, is it possible to use them in a comparative study to assess whether and in what way the use of the criteria may vary between nations? This study addresses both questions. The study uses the factorial survey method and is based on the social constructionist conception that effectiveness is created as an ongoing and sometimes contested outcome of a social judgement process. We illustrate the method with samples from the US and UK and compare the results. The results establish the value of the factorial survey method. Analyses show that both US and UK respondents use percentage expenditures on fund-raising, advocacy emphasis, change in financial surplus and unit cost of services as effectiveness criteria. There is evidence that voluntarism is a more important criterion in the US and that advocacy is more important in the UK.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs, Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri, 64110, Kansas City, Missouri

    Robert D. Herman (Professor)

  2. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 64110, Missouri

    Richard D. Heimovics (Levitt Professor of Human Relations)

Authors
  1. Robert D. Herman
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  2. Richard D. Heimovics
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Additional information

A grant from the Beistle Memorial Fund of the L.P. Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs supported this study. The kind assistance of David Billis and Margaret Harris of the Centre for Voluntary Organisation at the London School of Economics and Political Science made possible the collection and coding of the UK data. We appreciate their generous help. We also thank two anonymous reviewers forVoluntas for their helpful suggestions.

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Herman, R.D., Heimovics, R.D. A cross-national study of a method for researching non-profit organisational effectiveness. Voluntas 5, 86–100 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02353953

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