This chapter provides an overview of the nonprofit organization in the United States, the main characteristics of nonprofit organizations, and the reality of the nonprofit sector today. It describes the differences between a nonprofit and a for-profit corporation. Nonprofit organizations have existed for many centuries, especially through religious groups or religious-based activities. The nongovernmental sector is growing throughout the world. Increasingly, these organizations are playing key roles in the economic and social contexts of their countries. Unlike private-sector organizations concerned primarily with making a profit, nonprofit organizations are focused on carrying out a specific public-service mission. Successful nonprofit organizations require substantial capability in key areas of management: developing strong boards of directors, recruiting and motivating talented staff and volunteers, creating plans to focus resources on relevant goals and innovative programs, winning the support of diverse stakeholders, raising funds, and wisely managing fiscal and human resources.

This chapter discusses the term “service delivery” and describes a service delivery system in the context of a nonprofit organization. Servitization is the process whereby an organization develops creative and innovative ways to create a product-service system that integrates value-based products and service offerings. The chapter discusses the roles of client-centeredness, decision making, scheduling, priority setting, effective and efficient flow of services or activities, quality assurance, and continuing quality improvement, and how these factors contribute in their own context to influence positively or negatively the financial sustainability of a nonprofit organization. A customer-centric service design is a service delivery system that focuses on providing the best quality service possible to customers or clients or the service target, based on a service concept, a service decision path, service sustainability, and service quality. The chapter explains the relationship between service delivery and financial sustainability.

This chapter discusses both successes and failures in affiliation and collaboration techniques among nonprofits, including details on what the parties involved found to be the most valuable or most problematic aspects of the affiliations. It explores an overview of what has been and is versus what could be in the business models for both the nonprofit and the for-profit sectors, with the aim of shaking things up in the nonprofit world’s business-as-usual model. Clearly, a new business model is needed for the new paradigm, one that enables nonprofit organizations to adapt to the industry’s greater demands and the emerging market for corporate control without sacrificing core values. Capitalizing on the opportunities presented by the new human service paradigm will require nonprofit providers to adopt a new business model that is both capable of pursuing traditional consolidation strategies and supported by innovative organizational and financial designs.

This chapter focuses on a series of case studies and best practices for partnerships that discuss in detail the provision of back-office support for nonprofit partners. Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities using best practices to improve community health through direct service, partnership, innovation, policy, research, technical assistance, and a prepared work force. Traditional back-office services are usually designed to address many of the challenges of today’s changing nonprofit environment. Services depend on the level of organizational need and affordability, but are usually identified through a comprehensive organizational assessment of the nonprofit client. The Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that was founded in 1969 following a historic meeting between the city’s business and community leaders. Most nonprofits never rise to the scale of having a full internal administrative staff and purchased equipment.

For nonprofit agencies, there are generally two ways of growing: organically, which takes longer and is more detailed, or through strategic partnerships with other nonprofits. This chapter focuses on a wide range of strategic partnerships. Few nonprofits in the sector, other than hospitals and insurers, enter into strategic partnerships, and far fewer merge or affiliate with other nonprofits. The Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), however, is one of the rare nonprofit health and human service organizations that has been engaged in mergers and affiliations in the past 20 years. Environmental factors such as increased organizational competition or decreased foundation or donor funding encourage nonprofits to contemplate mergers. Nonprofit mergers provide a variety of benefits including the opportunity for expanded social impact. Merged nonprofits can roll together annual audits, combine insurance programs, and consolidate staffs and boards. Mergers and affiliations are one way that organizations are attempting to temper competition.

This chapter proposes a clarification of what social entrepreneurship is and how it differs from other socially oriented and entrepreneurially oriented activities. It also proposes that one of the more productive uses of the term implies a certain mind-set. The chapter highlights some versions of social entrepreneurship as case examples and argues that social entrepreneurship can be studied at a university. Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs in the methods they use, but different as they are motivated by social goals rather than material profits. The social entrepreneur, in contrast to the traditional entrepreneur, public servant, or nongovernmental organization (NGO) executive, is purpose driven and impact oriented. Market orientation is a key feature that differentiates social entrepreneurship ventures from other social organizations, such as nonprofit social service delivery or advocacy.

Medieval universities were structured as urban centers providing technical training in medicine, law, and, most importantly, theology. Colleges and universities are uniquely situated within communities, often influencing many facets of a community’s life, including costs and structure of housing, types of amenities and businesses, and the presence of law enforcement. During the rapid industrialization of Victorian London, urban poverty in the East End became a growing concern. In partnership with Vicar Barnett, Arnold Toynbee conceptualized a model of community engagement whereby students from universities such as Cambridge and Oxford would take up residence in London’s East End to collaborate with residents and address social problems. Understanding the historical rationale for campus-community partnership is critical for determining the future of community engagement. The engaged campus plays an important role in both maintaining and promoting civil society and fostering civic engagement among emerging adults.

Historically, service-learning practice and literature have focused more heavily on student experiences rather than those of the community partner. Although research focused on community partners’ experiences has increased, it has generally not taken into account shifting demographics of students in the U.S. higher education system, specifically the rapid internationalization of colleges and universities. Beginning in 1938 with Dewey’s introduction to experiential learning and democratic education, service learning has gained momentum as a pedagogical technique and as a high-impact practice. The number of nonprofit organizations in the U.S. hosting international service-learning students is unknown, but given trends in international exchange programs and the demographic nature of clients served by nonprofit organizations in the U.S., the mutually beneficial possibilities of international service learners in U.S. organizations are vast. Through an analysis of the qualitative data, researchers have identified cultural and linguistic barriers as a consistent theme.

In order to be an effective manager, the key ingredient is to understand that the world, as it is perceived, is the world that is behaviorally important. As a manager, it is important to be able to differentiate between fact and inference. Managers should identify staff with high-power needs and understand that when those people feel powerless or not in control of a situation, they are more likely to be frustrated. As many managers view the appraisal process as intruding into their “regular” responsibilities, they tend to not want to go out of their way to concentrate on gathering, thoroughly evaluating, and digesting all the information needed to accurately assess a staff member’s performance. An ongoing and open dialogue between staff and management is critical to ensure that the manager is conducting him- or herself in a manner that fits into the parameters of social justice.