Gupta Governance Institute Nonprofit Seminar Series: Elizabeth Searing

A Framework for Nonprofit Resiliency: Lessons from Illinois presented by Elizabeth Searing (UT-Dallas)

ABSTRACT The ability of nonprofits to weather hard times is a popular theme in the literature; however, 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. Using qualitative analysis, we establish the Nonprofit Resiliency Framework, mapping tactics in five areas: financial, human resources, outreach, program and services, and management and leadership. We also find that the choice of resiliency tactics by a nonprofit is strongly influenced by structural factors such as organizational subsector, size, and age. This study not only provides further empirical support on organizational resilience, but also useful advice for nonprofits on how to weather a complex financial crisis.

The Gupta Governance Institute’s Center for Nonprofit Governance at Drexel’s LeBow College of Business in collaboration with the National Center on Nonprofit Enterprise (NCNE) is pleased to announce the launch of a new, online research seminar series on the theme of managing nonprofit organizations in a crisis. The series seeks to highlight frontiers of knowledge and new research important for the nonprofit field and provide a regular, national/international forum for academic researchers to explore these areas in depth. The seminars are intended to stimulate interactive discussion among researchers and to establish foundational knowledge for nonprofit leaders, funders, and directors.

The interactive seminar will take place via Zoom followed by discussion and a Q&A session.