Competing Contexts

Using a historical case study, this article presents an analysis of the evolution of a nonprofit organization and its governance structure as it was transformed from a grassroots and advocacy agency into a multimillion dollar contractor with the state. The case illustrates how boardfunctions, composition, and board management relations significandy changed in response to an environment increasingly organized around government's contracting out for services. The article argues that these changes can be understood as responses to contradictory logics embedded in the nonprofit's environment whereby competing beliefs and ideologies eventually ledto the creation of two distinct butloosely coupled organizations.