Hybrid Models for Social Change: Legitimacy Among Community-Based Nonprofit Organizations
- PDF / 299,296 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 73 Downloads / 208 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Hybrid Models for Social Change: Legitimacy Among Community-Based Nonprofit Organizations Rachel Wells1
•
Theresa Anasti2
International Society for Third-Sector Research 2019
Abstract Community-based hybrid nonprofits, defined as organizations that combine social services with organizing or advocacy, play a crucial role at the neighborhood level. Considering their nonconformity to conventional organizational forms, they face specific challenges and advantages in achieving their combined advocacy and service mission. Using neo-institutional theory to provide context to our data, this qualitative study of 18 nonprofits working in one neighborhood examines how hybrid nonprofits are categorized as well as processes for legitimacy for these organizations. We find that at the neighborhood level, hybrid nonprofits are identified as ‘‘grassroots’’ by both hybrids and non-hybrids alike and draw on this ‘‘grassroots’’ identity to achieve legitimacy. We examine the settings for this ‘‘grassroots’’ legitimacy and its challenges and conditions. Through cultivating a better understanding of community-based hybrid nonprofits, this study adds to the literature on how nonprofits provide services and organize at the neighborhood level. Keywords Legitimacy Hybrid organizations Community-based organizations Grassroots
& Rachel Wells [email protected] 1
Department of Social Welfare, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, 3250 Public Affairs Building, Box 951656, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, USA
2
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA
Introduction Nonprofit organizations play a key role in local service provision (Allard 2009; Marwell 2004). To complement their service provision activities, nonprofits may also be involved in political advocacy to address local concerns and represent their community (Hyde 1992; Meyer 2010; Minkoff 2002; Mosley 2010, 2012). While nonprofit organizations are often classified as either service providing or advocacy oriented, this paper examines nonprofits that are considered ‘‘hybrid nonprofits’’: those that integrate both service provision and political activity into their mission. For hybrid organizations, services and political advocacy are part of their model of social change (Hasenfeld and Gidron 2005; Meyer 2010), as they often provide services that could be considered political (Hyde 1992; Gates 2014; Minkoff 2002). However, hybrids deal with different uncertainties and audiences than non-hybrid organizations, which may affect their organizational legitimacy (Minkoff 2002). This research helps understand how hybrid service-organizing nonprofits differ from non-hybrid human service nonprofits and the challenges and advantages for this service-organizing model in achieving legitimacy within their field. Prior literature examining organizations that encompass multiple categories predicts that hybrids will face sanctions for trying to span more than one organizational category (Hsu et al. 2009)
Data Loading...
