The Pressure to \u27Do More with Less\u27: Exploring Donor Misconceptions about Nonprofit Financial Health and Performance

As the nonprofit sector has grown in size and importance over the years, so has competition for donations and attention to the financial behaviors of organizations. Donors and information intermediaries have long expected nonprofits to remain financially lean - there is an expectation for organizations to direct all revenues directly to program areas, and any other spending is viewed as a misappropriation of funds. Nonprofit organizations attempt to satisfy this widely held donor expectation at the expense of organizational infrastructure and growth potential. I reviewed the Economic Research Institute’s Form 990 data and NCCS CORE data for 2013/2014 and 2018/2019 to analyze how donors respond to nonprofit financial measures through their donative behaviors. I analyze the two periods to determine if donative behaviors, and thus donor expectations, have shifted with increased research and discourse on the negative implications of NPO financial leanness. This study looks at the root of the discussion about misguided donor expectations, the need for greater impact disclosure, and the need for more discussion with donors about the importance of organizational growth and capacity building to further program impact. Donor aversion to administrative spending and emphasis on financial leanness is evident in the findings. This reaffirms the need for more discussion about the importance of overhead spending and capacity building in the nonprofit sector and for more transparent and uniform means of reporting organizational impact

Awakening the spirit

I have chosen to create a series of woven rugs and handwoven panels which reflect a personal vision. I choose to think metaphysically about the world I live in and about the objects that surround me. Life represents a spiritual journey in which each of us is involved. The Bible says that, Many are called, but few are chosen. However, I tend to agree more with the following statement: We all are called and we are all chosen if we simply have the courage to step into the unknown. Many things could cause a person to begin an internal evaluation of the human spirit. For me the process of self-realization was initiated by great pain and loss of hope. My awareness of the human spirit\u27s capability of positive change and growth allowed me to develop a clearer understanding of the person within. I have approached this thesis as an opportunity to share my insights with others

The Effect of Daughters on Partisanship and Social Attitudes Toward Woman

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Conley, D. and Rauscher, E. (2013), The Effect of Daughters on Partisanship and Social Attitudes Toward Women. Sociol Forum, 28: 700–718. doi:10.1111/socf.12055, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12055. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Washington (2008) finds that daughters promote liberal voting (at least with respect to women's issues) among U.S. Congress members and attributes this finding to socialization. However, daughters’ influence could manifest differently for elite politicians and the general citizenry either due to self-selection or the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, which suggests that parents invest differently in male and female children depending on their social status. Using nationally representative data from the General Social Survey, this study asks whether biological daughters affect political party identification, traditional views of women, or opinions about abortion and teen sex. We find that female offspring promote identification with the more conservative Republican Party, but this effect depends on social status. There is no evidence that daughters promote liberal views of women and less consistent evidence that they influence views of abortion or teen sex. Overall, evidence supports the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, but with a more complex interaction by social status

Genetic Interactions with Prenatal Social Environment: Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

Numerous studies report gene-environment interactions, suggesting that specific alleles have different effects on social outcomes depending on environment. In all these studies, however, environmental conditions are potentially endogenous to unmeasured genetic characteristics. That is, it could be that the observed interaction effects actually reflect underlying genetic tendencies that lead individuals into certain environments. What is critical to move this literature forward is random environmental variation that we know is not correlated with innate characteristics of subjects. We exploit a natural experiment that randomizes a particular stressor—birth weight discordance within twin pairs—to address this challenge and ask: Do random differences in early environment (prenatal nutrition) moderate genetic effects on depression, delinquency, or GPA? Using Add Health data, the only consistently significant allele–birth weight interaction we reveal works in the opposite direction of Caspi et al.’s classic finding regarding the interaction of maltreatment with genetic variation in the serotonin transporter promoter. Less robust interactions found for DRD2 and MAOA are consistent with this pattern that reverses prior findings. These results do not necessarily overturn existing research but support our methodological point that gene-environment research must address endogeneity

The Equal Environments Assumption in the Post-Genomic Age: Using Misclassified Twins to Estimate Bias in Heritability Models

While it has long been known that genetic-environmental covariance is likely to be non-trivial and confound estimates of narrow-sense (additive) heritability for social and behavioral outcomes, there has not been an effective way to address this concern. Indeed, in a classic paper, Goldberger (1979) shows that by varying assumptions of the GE-covariance, a researcher can drive the estimated heritability of an outcome, such as IQ, down to zero or up close to one. Survey questions that attempt to measure directly the extent to which more genetically similar kin (such as monozygotic twins) also share more similar environmental conditions than, say, dizygotic twins, represent poor attempts to gauge a very complex underlying phenomenon of GE-covariance. Methods that rely on concordance between interviewer classification and self-report offer similar concerns about validity. In the present study, we take advantage of a natural experiment to address this issue from another angle: Misclassification of twin zygosity in a nationally-representative study (Add Health). Since such twins were reared under one “environmental regime of similarity” while genetically belonging to another group, this reverses the typical GE-covariance and allows us bounded estimates of heritability for a range of outcomes of interest to medical and behavioral scientists.

Warby Parker: A Blurred Vision of Profitability

Warby Parker is a rising competitor in the heavily consolidated eyewear industry. When it launched in 2008, the company took on a blue ocean strategy, which incorporates both cost leadership and product differentiation, in hopes of defeating powerful incumbents. Rather than selling its frames in existing eyewear retailers, many of which are owned by competitors, Warby Parker launched online, selling high-quality frames at an affordable price. More than a decade later, the company is reevaluating its strategy as it has yet to become profitable

Sibling Genes as Environment: Sibling Dopamine Genotypes and Adolescent Health Support Frequency Dependent Selection

While research consistently suggests siblings matter for individual outcomes, it remains unclear why. At the same time, studies of genetic effects on health typically correlate variants of a gene with the average level of behavioral or health measures, ignoring more complicated genetic dynamics. Using National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data, we investigate whether sibling genes moderate individual genetic expression. We compare twin variation in health-related absences and self-rated health by genetic differences at three locations related to dopamine regulation and transport to test sibship-level cross-person gene–gene interactions. Results suggest effects of variation at these genetic locations are moderated by sibling genes. Although the mechanism remains unclear, this evidence is consistent with frequency dependent selection and suggests much genetic research may violate the stable unit treatment value assumption

Heritability and the Equal Environments Assumption: Evidence from Multiple Samples of Misclassified Twins

The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-013-9602-1Classically derived estimates of heritability from twin models have been plagued by the possibility of genetic-environmental covariance. Survey questions that attempt to measure directly the extent to which more genetically similar kin (such as monozygotic twins) also share more similar environmental conditions represent poor attempts to gauge a complex underlying phenomenon of GE-covariance. The present study exploits a natural experiment to address this issue: Self-misperception of twin zygosity in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Such twins were reared under one “environmental regime of similarity” while genetically belonging to another group, reversing the typical GE-covariance and allowing bounded estimates of heritability for a range of outcomes. In addition, we examine twins who were initially misclassified by survey assignment—a stricter standard—in three datasets: Add Health, the Minnesota Twin Family Study and the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden. Results are similar across approaches and datasets and largely support the validity of the equal environments assumption

Methods for identifying surgical wound infection after discharge from hospital: a systematic review

Background: Wound infections are a common complication of surgery that add significantly to the morbidity of patients and costs of treatment. The global trend towards reducing length of hospital stay post-surgery and the increase in day case surgery means that surgical site infections (SSI) will increasingly occur after hospital discharge. Surveillance of SSIs is important because rates of SSI are viewed as a measure of hospital performance, however accurate detection of SSIs post-hospital discharge is not straightforward. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of methods of post discharge surveillance for surgical wound infection and undertook a national audit of methods of post-discharge surveillance for surgical site infection currently used within United Kingdom NHS Trusts. Results: Seven reports of six comparative studies which examined the validity of post-discharge surveillance methods were located; these involved different comparisons and some had methodological limitations, making it difficult to identify an optimal method. Several studies evaluated automated screening of electronic records and found this to be a useful strategy for the identification of SSIs that occurred post discharge. The audit identified a wide range of relevant post-discharge surveillance programmes in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; however, these programmes used varying approaches for which there is little supporting evidence of validity and/or reliability. Conclusion: In order to establish robust methods of surveillance for those surgical site infections that occur post discharge, there is a need to develop a method of case ascertainment that is valid and reliable post discharge. Existing research has not identified a valid and reliable method. A standardised definition of wound infection (e.g. that of the Centres for Disease Control) should be used as a basis for developing a feasible, valid and reliable approach to defining post discharge SSI. At a local level, the method used to ascertain post discharge SSI will depend upon the purpose of the surveillance, the nature of available routine data and the resources available. © 2006 Petherick et al; licensee, BioMed Central Ltd