Mission-Market Tensions and Nonprofit Pricing

Private not-for-profit organizations combine characteristics of a public sector agency with those of a private, proprietary firm. In particular, nonprofits are required to address designated social missions while breaking even financially. This structure underlies the difficulty that nonprofit organizations face in making decisions with important resource implications. Specifically, choices that would achieve maximal mission impact may differ from choices that reward the organization in purely financial terms. As a result, nonprofit managers face a variety of trade-offs between mission responsive and financially rewarding actions. This paper considers some of these tradeoffs in the context of pricing decisions by nonprofit organizations. In particular, the paper draws on alternative theories of nonprofit pricing from the literature. In one theory, nonprofits are viewed as revenue maximizers, pricing their services to garner as much net revenue as possible to support their organizations. In an alternative theory, nonprofits are conceived as mission maximizers, pricing their services to achieve maximum mission impact within the constraint of financial solvency. The efficacy of these theories is explored through five case studies of organizations offering a variety of services within the context of a local social services federation. Evidence from these cases suggests that the forgoing theories apply in some combination for any given nonprofit organization. Several different behavioral patterns are found, including nonprofits seeking to balance financial and mission impacts in the pricing policies for each of their service offerings and others pursuing a strategic mix of pricing policies for profitable and mission-impacting services. It is clear from all cases observed that nonprofit managers struggle with mission-market tensions as they relate to pricing and that they can benefit from metrics to help them sort through these decisions in ways that resolve these tensions. Working Paper 08-0

Genetic Networks of Complex Disorders: from a Novel Search Engine for PubMed Article Database

Finding genetic risk factors of complex disorders may involve reviewing hundreds of genes or thousands of research articles iteratively, but few tools have been available to facilitate this procedure. In this work, we built a novel publication search engine that can identify target-disorder specific, genetics-oriented research articles and extract the genes with significant results. Preliminary test results showed that the output of this engine has better coverage in terms of genes or publications, than other existing applications. We consider it as an essential tool for understanding genetic networks of complex disorders

Formulation of a Ceramic Ink for 3D Inkjet Printing

Due to its multi‐material capabilities, 3D inkjet printing allows for the fabrication of com‐ponents with functional elements which may significantly reduce the production steps. The poten‐tial to print electronics requires jettable polymer‐ceramic composites for thermal management. In this study, a respective material was formulated by functionalizing submicron alumina particles by 3‐(trimethoxysilyl)propylmethacrylate  (MPS)  and  suspending  them  in  a  mixture  of  the  oli‐gourethane Genomer 4247 with two acrylate functionalities and a volatile solvent. Ink jetting tests were performed, as well as thermal conductance and mechanical property measurements. The ma‐terial met the strict requirements of the printing technology, showing viscosities of around 16 mPa∙s as a liquid. After solidification, it exhibited a ceramic content of 50 vol%, with a thermal conductance of 1 W/(m∙K). The resulting values reflect the physical possibilities within the frame of the allowed tolerances set by the production method

Homelessness and Child Welfare Services in New York City: Exploring Trends and Opportunites for Improving Outcomes for Children and Youth

For over a decade, national research has shown that many disadvantaged youth and families experience both homelessness and involvement in child welfare services. However, prior to the research summarized here, no population-based research had examined systematically the extent and dynamics by which children and youth experience both of these service systems. This white paper for the New York City Administration for Children\u27s Services (ACS) provides a summary of three studies that looked carefully at how these two important social welfare systems have shared a population, and how our improved understanding of these intersecting systems of care can promote better outcomes and improved quality of life for children and youth

Value investing across asset classes

The objective of this study is to derive two long-only value risk premium multi-asset strategies, as well as naive investment strategies (equal weighted investment strategy and 60/40 portfolio) which are back tested out-of-sample and evaluated for the period from January 1995 to December 2015. The obtained results exhibit superior excess return for the absolute and relative value strategies compared to the naive investment strategies, and display more effective risk-reward ratios due to better distributed returns. However, the findings emphasise concurrently that the value investing strategies should be applied as a complementary portfolio instrument in the context of dynamic asset allocation due to value phase shifts to mitigate drawdown. Moreover, the overall statistical inference presents that the most influential determinants are interest rate related factors like the inflation rate and macro-economic driven variables, such as the I.S.M. Composite Index and the oil price. The multivariate regression analysis also shows a strong dependency between the value strategy returns, stocks and commodities

Behavioral health services use among heads of homeless and housed poor families

Objectives. This study compares the use of and cost for behavioral health services among heads of homeless and housed poor families. Methods. Medicaid records for 59,135 heads of families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits were matched with data from Philadelphia’s municipal shelter system. Propensity score matching was used to select a matched control group to those identified as having been homeless between 1997 and 2003. Behavioral health services utilization was then assessed based on Medicaid claims records. Results. Substantially higher levels of behavioral health services use and corresponding costs were found among heads of families with a history of shelter use. Conclusions. Greater use of behavioral health services by heads of homeless families may reflect greater severity of disorders or a greater likelihood to seek treatment relative to what has been suggested by previous research

Public Shelter Admission among Young Adults with Child Welfare Histories by Type of Service and Type of Exit

This study examines the prevalence and associated factors of New York City public shelter use among young adults with histories of out-of-home care or nonplacement preventive services as teenagers. The study finds that 19 percent of former child welfare service users entered public shelters within 10 years of exit from child welfare. Persons with out-of-home placement histories are twice as likely to enter public shelters (22 percent) as those who received nonplacement preventive services only (11 percent). Persons exiting child welfare through absconding from child welfare have the highest rate of shelter use, followed by those discharged to independent living

Hydrothermal carbonization of fructose—effect of salts and reactor stirring on the growth and formation of carbon spheres

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has become a promising technology for the production of hydrochar and carbon spheres. Several studies indicate a strong dependency of the reaction conditions on the sphere diameter. The usage of additives, such as salts, is one possibility to increase the size of the spheres. However, the growth mechanism which leads to larger particles is not fully understood. In this work, kinetic studies of HTC with fructose were performed with different salts as additives. The growth of the particles (the increase in size) has been compared to the formation rates (increase in yield) of hydrochar by using the reaction rate constants from the kinetic model. The results indicate that the acceleration of the growth rate is independent of the formation rate. It is therefore assumed that coagulation, as a growth mechanism, took place. With longer reaction times, the particles reached a stable particle size, independently from the added salts; therefore, it was assumed that the particles underwent some sort of solidification. The state of matter can therefore be described as an intermediate state between liquid and solid, similar to mesophase pitch. Experiments with a stirrer resulted in squashed particles, which supports the model, that the particles exhibit emulsion-like behavior