Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This is a case study of Indiana Humanities, a statewide coalition building nonprofit, and its use of social network analysis (SNA) to better understand the humanities sector in the state to plan for future programs and policy actions.  The study surveyed 390 individuals working with humanities-related organizations in 88 counties to gather basic data and show how humanities organizations connected to each other and to the people of Indiana. The goal was to “map” the network of relationships among the various public and academic humanities sectors using social network analysis. The analysis illustrates the importance of strong, centralized statewide coordinating organizations to the cohesiveness and resiliency of the network.  It also shows how bridging organizations extend the network to new constituencies or local contexts.  The challenges and benefits of using SNA as a managment and planning tool within the nonprofit and public sectors will be discussed.