Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. We propose a conceptual model of the political activities of nonprofits that qualify for exemption under subsections of the Internal Revenue Code other than 501(c)(3), including social welfare organizations, civic leagues, social clubs, and so on, which considers three categories of explanatory factors: organizational capacity, financial strategy, and operating environment. Using a Heckman selection model with longitudinal IRS 990 data, we find government regulation to be an obstacle for nonprofits to engage in the policy process. Political activities of non-501(c)(3) organizations are also negatively associated with government support, suggesting these organizations perceive government intervention differently from 501(c)(3) organizations when engaging in political activities.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Many nonprofit organizations operate under immense financial pressure. Revenue volatility is a common target for managers to minimize under the assumption that maintaining consistent revenue enhances the viability of the organization while high revenue volatility may disrupt planning. However, the relationship between revenue volatility and the viability of nonprofit organizations is poorly understood. This article presents the first empirical test of the link between volatility and dissolution in U.S. public charities from 2010 to 2018 (N = 2,126,894) using discrete time survival models. The results show that a 10% increase in revenue volatility predicts an increase in dissolution risk between 7% and 14%. In addition, the effect of revenue volatility varies by the age of the organization, suggesting volatility may be a greater threat to older organizations than to those newly formed. Implications for managers and future research are discussed.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. This article presents a summary review of the voluntary sector literature on third sector organizations (TSOs) and climate change. As governments around the world fail to respond adequately to the climate crisis, TSOs are called upon to work with governments, advocate for policy change, and support communities. However, the literature on TSOs and climate change remains limited. We reviewed 68 articles about TSOs and climate change and identified four mechanisms for voluntary action on climate change, which vary on two dimensions—focusing on advocacy or implementation and occurring within or outside government—and include policy advocacy, advocacy for behavior change, participation in governance, and direct interventions. We conclude with five key areas for future research: explaining the relationship between advocacy strategies and context, foregrounding the role of TSOs in climate governance, exploring direct interventions by TSOs, examining community-based TSOs, and linking TSO action and climate outcomes.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Social media is an important tool for nonprofit public policy advocacy. To help nonprofits effectively utilize social media in advocacy efforts, this study proposes a measurement framework of social media social capital based on social networks. Specifically, in this study, we examine the relationships between social media capital and symbolic, political capital on social media. We study how a group of nonprofits utilizes Twitter to advocate for the Green New Deal and their interaction with politicians, activists, and publics on social media during the 2019 presidential primaries. Our analysis shows that different dimensions of social media capital significantly influence nonprofits’ social media-based symbolic capital and political capital.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. This article studies the impact of exogenous shocks on nonprofit operations by assessing the effect of 9/11 on donations to Muslim American nonprofits. The first narrative promoted by civil rights groups and some Islamic charities argues that donations to Islamic charities have declined. Individuals are afraid of getting indicted by law enforcement agencies for advertently or inadvertently funding an organization that supports terrorism. The second narrative is that donations to Islamic charities have increased post-9/11 as donors push back against Islamophobia by supporting Muslim nonprofits. I systematically assess these narratives using difference-in-difference (DiD) methodology and find that 9/11 had no significant impact on overall contributions to Islamic charities. Although donations to internationally focused Islamic charities declined in the year following 9/11, when compared with domestic-focused Islamic charities, they also recovered shortly after that. Moreover, they did not reduce significantly when compared with non-Islamic internationally focused organizations.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. I examine how volunteering dynamics changed in the United Kingdom during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic relying on data from the “Understanding Society” survey. Descriptive analyses and linear probability models yield three main findings: First, the share of volunteers (for all causes) dropped at least by a third during the first lockdown and did not increase until March 2021. Second, disproportional (absolute) declines occurred among the elderly, women, and those with higher education. Elderly individuals were particularly likely to quit their voluntary engagement, while the propensity of starting declined particularly among higher educated individuals. Third, volunteering in response to COVID-19 was performed by only 3.4% of all respondents and was more common among the higher educated, women, and experienced volunteers. These results suggest that volunteering might well decrease during disasters that affect the opportunities of potential volunteers contrasting the mobilizing role of disasters highlighted by earlier research.

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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. This research note introduces nonprofit researchers accustomed to the U.S. Form 990 to the Canadian data captured on the T3010 financial form that will soon be available to researchers on a broad scale. Similar to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) T3010 is an annual information filing required of every Canadian charity that meets certain requirements. However, several elements in the data are unique to the Canadian context, while others are similar to the Form 990 but must be interpreted with attention to differences in definition and accounting practice that might otherwise complicate attempts at cross-national comparisons. Once these elements and the data’s limitations are understood, however, the forthcoming datasets will allow rich analysis for researchers and practitioners in areas that are yet unexplored with large data sources.

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