Panel: Funding of Nonprofit Organizations: Philanthropy, Charitable Donations, and Commercial Revenues
(Public and Non-Profit Management and Finance)

Thursday, November 7, 2019: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
Plaza Building: Concourse Level, Plaza Court 5 (Sheraton Denver Downtown)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Organizer:  Samuel L. Myers, University of Minnesota
Panel Chair:  Samuel L. Myers, University of Minnesota
Discussants:  Jodi Sandfort, University of Minnesota and Steven Belton, The Minneapolis Urban League

This session brings together scholars from diverse fields to share their research findings on the funding of nonprofit, community-based organizations. The first paper tests the hypothesis of philanthropic disinvestment in African American nonprofits in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. The second paper proposes a new measure of the efficiency of nonprofits and studies donors’ responsiveness to the efficiency of nonprofits in the housing sector. The third paper examines the effect of transparency on nonprofits’ financial performance on donative revenues using empirical evidence from China. The fourth paper focuses on commercial revenues and studies the impacts of such revenues on the use of volunteers.

Together, these four papers cover major funding sources of nonprofits from philanthropy, donation, and commercial revenue. These four papers also approach this topic from both the perspective of donors and the perspective of nonprofit recipients. Empirical evidence is from both inside and outside of the United States. The two discussants are from academia and from practice respectively, to stimulate insightful discussions on the papers and their findings and to bridge empirical results to practical applications.


Philanthropic Disinvestment in African American Nonprofit Organizations
Shuyi Deng and Samuel L. Myers, University of Minnesota



The Impact of Transparency on Donations: Evidence from a Panel Study
Zhongsheng Wu and Angela L. Bies, University of Maryland