Beyond Liabilities: Survival Skills for the Young, Small, and Not-for-profit

This dissertation offers insight into the organizational lives of small and new not-for-profits. The first essay used three different estimation strategies to model the role of revenue type in the growth in young and small not-for-profits. We find that increases in the percentage of a not-for-profit’s revenue portfolio going to dues, indirect support, or non-mission income will suppress growth and that there is no “optimal” model across subsectors. The second essay uses over twenty years of panel data to predict which factors indicate the impending recovery of a financially vulnerable small and young nonprofit. Support for hypotheses based in the literature is mixed, but the key insight is that nonprofits need to save if they want to get healthy: bringing in revenues is not enough. Finally, the third essay uses a qualitative approach on young and new mental health not-for-profits in the state of New York. Using comparative case studies, this study analyzes the internal and external factors surrounding the demise of small and young mental health nonprofits. This study finds support for several of the potential causes of nonprofit demise in a newly proposed typology

The Impact of Situational Factors on Forum Choice and Criminal Justice System Development in Bangladesh

Using a survey by the World Bank\u27s Justice and Development Initiative, Kristina Lugo and Elizabeth Searing examine whether crime victims\u27 choice of dispute resolution forum is more constrained by social factors, such as socioeconomic status, or by event-specific factors, such as direct economic loss from the crime itself. In Bangladesh\u27s pluralist legal environment of competing traditional and state venues, neoinstitutionalist-inspired development strategies overlook important factors and strategies that improve access to justice for those most hurt by crime. This study finds that crime victims who suffer greater economic harm resulting directly from the crime, as well as victims of violent crime, tend to engage the state criminal justice system rather exclusively utilizing the traditional system. After a historical comparison seeking to identify possible omitted structural variables, Lugo and Searing highlight the need to consider crime-event-specific factors, not just social-level problems, when designing rule-of-law programs in developing countries

The Impact of Situational Factors on Forum Choice and Criminal Justice System Development in Bangladesh

Using a survey by the World Bank\u27s Justice and Development Initiative, Kristina Lugo and Elizabeth Searing examine whether crime victims\u27 choice of dispute resolution forum is more constrained by social factors, such as socioeconomic status, or by event-specific factors, such as direct economic loss from the crime itself. In Bangladesh\u27s pluralist legal environment of competing traditional and state venues, neoinstitutionalist-inspired development strategies overlook important factors and strategies that improve access to justice for those most hurt by crime. This study finds that crime victims who suffer greater economic harm resulting directly from the crime, as well as victims of violent crime, tend to engage the state criminal justice system rather exclusively utilizing the traditional system. After a historical comparison seeking to identify possible omitted structural variables, Lugo and Searing highlight the need to consider crime-event-specific factors, not just social-level problems, when designing rule-of-law programs in developing countries

Resiliency tactics during financial crisis: The nonprofit resiliency framework

The ability of nonprofits to weather hard times is a popular theme in the literature, yet most of the research is spent on predicting organizational closure. Unfortunately, this offers little guidance to nonprofits attempting to both survive and deliver services during crises. We use the lived experiences of 31 nonprofits—a mix of umbrella groups and direct human service providers—during the Illinois state budget impasse to understand nonprofit organization resilience in times of crisis. We establish the Nonprofit Resiliency Framework using qualitative analysis, mapping tactics in five areas: financial, human resources, outreach, program and services, and management and leadership. This study not only provides further empirical investigation of organizational resilience, but also useful advice for nonprofits on how to weather a complex financial crisis