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This article examines the Commission’s Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Foundation (Fundatio Europaea). Focusing on the proposed transparency and accountability provisions, it interrogates whether these provisions are sufficiently robust to facilitate effective Member State supervision of this proposed new supranational legal form, given identified weaknesses in existing Member State foundation regulatory regimes. Consideration is also given to the Statute’s proposed reporting and auditing mechanisms. Particular attention is paid to the challenges inherent in standardising financial reporting standards and the missed opportunities to introduce best practice in the draft Regulation. The article concludes by identifying a number of interpretative loopholes in the existing proposal, which if adopted in its current format, would weaken the potential for an effective, efficient and feasible solution to the problems currently experienced by many foundations operating on a cross-border basis in Europe.

This study seeks to quantify the impact of the nonprofit sector on economic development by more clearly defining the diverse roles that nonprofits may play in development – instrumental, expressive, and connective. We begin by summarizing existing research on nonprofit organizations and economic development. Using secondary data, we test our model in 360 U.S. metropolitan areas for the years 2001–2006. Do nonprofit organizations produce economic growth? Our statistical findings suggest, “Not really” and “It depends.” While some forms of nonprofit organizations (business associations) are positively related to growth, others such as congregations and social and fraternal associations may have a dampening effect. Overall, our findings suggest complex relationships between individual forms of capital, organizational structures, and development that may be place and time dependent. While our findings currently provide little guidance for policy makers attempting to promote economic development, our findings do have important implications for nonprofit and public policy scholars. Any attempt to explore the relationship between nonprofit activity and development must untangle indicators of individual behavior (church attendance or census return rates) from indicators of organizational structures (such as the number of specific organizations). Second, any effort to understand the impact of the nonprofit sector should disaggregate sector measures based upon a conceptual understanding of the diverse roles of various organizational types (for example, human service organizations versus social and fraternal organizations). Finally, growth and development and the role of the sector are contextual, exhibiting significant regional and temporal variation.

Human service nonprofit organizations have increasingly been called upon to produce public services as governments have sought to devolve responsibility to private organizations. Just as stress tests have used accounting indicators to determine the distress of banks, this article uses measures of financial distress (Shumway 2001; Trussel and Greenlee 2004) to understand what types of human service nonprofits are facing difficulties. Joining NCCS Core Files with spatial data from the American Community Survey, I find that there is a positive relationship between financial distress and minority population. The article enters the debate as to how cutting public funding for human services may harm vulnerable communities.

Immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations registered and mobilized thousands of new voters in 2012. These efforts were abetted by philanthropic foundation which, since the early 2000s, have prioritized immigration policy and immigrant issues. Other foundations, hostile to illegal immigration, have funded another set of nonprofits that worked to change immigration policy and voting laws. The article explains these complex relationships between foundations and nonprofits in the context of immigration. The conclusions highlight the tension faced by immigrant-serving nonprofits to maintain their independence and benefit from external funding.

In response to The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI, later renamed the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, FBNP), many states either created an FBCI office within state government or established a state liaison to the federal program through a nonprofit organization. While the offices have multiple stated goals, the acquisition of federal funding for community organizations within their respective states is a fairly consistent, and critical, goal for most of these offices. Using a multivariate regression model and a survey of state liaison offices, this mixed methods study finds that there is no difference between states with liaisons and states without with respect to federal funding for community organizations in their states and identifies barriers to their successful achievement of funding objectives. A survey of state FBNP offices detailing budgets, staffing, and reporting structures, among other things, indicates that a lack of unrestricted funds, lack of adequate staffing, and decreasing political salience are contributing factors.

Spontaneous volunteer participation has developed rapidly over the past decade, though compulsory volunteer participation through top-to-bottom, government-based organizations is still prevalent among Chinese citizens. Drawing on a case study of Jinan, a city in China, this study explores the types of and motives for volunteer participation including how volunteers differ in their voluntary service experiences and what their attitudes are toward volunteering and the future development of civil society in China. The findings illustrate: first, spontaneous participants with rewarding experiences who volunteer through grassroots, issue-based VSOs are most likely to have a positive attitude toward volunteering and believe that volunteering can make contributions to the development of civil society. Second, participants in grassroots and community-based VSOs are most likely to have an enthusiastic attitude toward volunteering, but they tend to be indifferent about the idea of civil society. However, they tend to contribute to the development of volunteering and civil society when given the opportunity, because participation in voluntary services enhances their participatory abilities and their sense of self-organization and mutual collaboration. Last but not least, volunteers who participate in a poorly managed volunteering organization and have a dissatisfactory, non-rewarding volunteering experience are most likely to have a pessimistic attitude toward volunteering and civil society. The implications of volunteering for the development of civil society are also discussed.

Worldwide, civil society organizations (CSOs) are an integral component in the complex network that comprises the public sphere improving the welfare of our communities. In the second half of the twentieth century French CSOs’ contributions to their citizens’ welfare have become increasingly valued. Nevertheless, radical changes to employment policies during the Sarkozy regime (2007–2012) impacted social services to unemployed migrants. In addition, central government constrained local governments’ ability to fund social services, pushing a shift from a culture of “granting subsidies” to one based on “public procurement contracting” (Langlais 2008). These environmental changes are likely to transform CSO-government relationships. This research asks two questions: what is the impact of such radical changes and what possible responses can organizations make, if they are to survive? To answer these, we utilize a case study of a French CSO (Association), which is highly dependent on public funding to deliver its urban-based migrant programs. We utilize the lens of resource dependency, focusing on the interrelationships and interactions that impact CSOs’ legitimacy and support. Effects of the reforms include a change from relatively cooperative relationships with government to adversarial exchanges. Moreover, this CSO’s activities are apprehended by public funders as short-term single projects considered in isolation from one another so that its overall outcomes are not quantitatively measured. As a result, the CSO’s overarching and long-term social and economic contribution to the territory’s public sphere is in jeopardy.