Conceptualizing small community groups as organizations:

...orHow Communities Create Nonprofits

Carl Milofsky, Bucknell UniversityMay 29, 2008London/IVAR

Focus on:Small Nonprofits and Associations

Budgets usually under $200,000—few paid staff, overworked

Often new organizations—in the “collectivist phase”

Organizational evolution—towards more rational structure?—Miriam Wood.

Limited usefulness of strategic management ideas

Defining Nonprofit or Voluntary Sector Organizations

From Anheier and Salamon

Formality (ownership, boundaries) Independence (vs. embeddedness) Self-governance (hierarchy? vs. external

direction) Voluntarism Private benefit vs. Public benefit (add technology)

Tacit assumptions of the bureaucratic model

Evolution from participatory to bureaucratic Evolution implies isomorphism

In the functionalist model, elements of bureaucracy are adopted as a matter of operational necessity

Assuming that organizations are the same makes organizational analysis possible

Ignores empirical diversity of organizations If evolution is correct, does that mean organizations began

having diverse forms?

Organizational features

Communal organizations are highly organized systems that operate at the community level where corporate organizations do not exist or are weak

Unitary organizations are bounded and autonomous but lack elements of formal organization

Communal organizations

Primordial ooze Social problem definition Symbolic community building Network organizations Intermediate organizations

Unitary Organizations

Passionately committed, citizen projects

Enduring, anti-authority organizations

Political and cultural movements Communities in themselves

Building Social Treasuries

Where is the value in community-based/civil society organizations?

Can we manage them more effectively without becoming slaves to management theory?

What fosters the development of the organizations in communities?

Value added from Civil Society Organizations

Belfast Peace Walls problem and economic development—the need for ongoing and effective cross-community groups

Intrinsic value of engaged community involvement as a life style

Symbolic community development Community efficacy Social innovation

Communities Grow Civil Society Organizations

Dense social capital—networks and trust Citizen history and experience with civil action Stock of community moral entrepreneurs Receptive government and institutional structures Leveraging and conservation of community resources to

build the social treasury.

Improving management

Move people along the hierarchy of experience and skills.

Access basic management skills Use effective strategic visioning Recognize and use non-cash community

resources Have a long-term horizon, not the short-term

bottom line of business organizations Value intermediate organizations

Conclusions Need to adopt a “market analogy” model of

organizations Seek to grow the whole system Allow particular organizations to die rather than

to become resource dependent Value, feed, and support community moral

entrepreneurs Emphasize long-term partnership/consultations Develop coordinative, whole community

stewardship, planning, and accountability