Preserving the Publicness of the Nonprofit Sector

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly advised to become fiscally self-sufficient and reduce resource dependence to preserve autonomy. However, little is known empirically about the relationships between particular resource streams and the roles espoused by nonprofit organizations that define their public value, including service delivery, innovation, advocacy, individual expression, social capital creation, and citizen engagement. To address this gap in the literature, we collect and analyze survey data from more than 100 nonprofit organizations, developing and testing a new “Nonprofit Sector Public Role Index” that assesses their perceived performance on six different roles simultaneously. Furthermore, we evaluate characteristics that make nonprofits more or less likely to fulfill various roles, with primary emphasis on financial resources. We find evidence that particular resource streams are strongly associated with particular nonprofit roles. Therefore, resource dependence—particularly dependence on public support—may play an important value preservation role in the nonprofit sector.