Nonprofit change-makers? A mixed methods study on the political role of NPOs.

It is widely recognized that many nonprofit organizations (NPOs) adopt a political role and strive towards societal change. On the one hand, there is a vast body of research in non-profit management that acknowledges the value of nonprofit advocacy (Al-Mog Bar & Schmid, 2014), defined as the use of several strategies and tactics 'attempting to influence the decisions of an institutional elite on behalf of a collective interest' (Kimberlin, 2010). On the other hand, mainly outside of the field of non-profit management, there has been a lot of reflection on the changing nature of the political role of NPOs, referring notably to life style, deliberative and agonistic politics (Beck, 1997; Fung & Wright, 2001; Mouffe, 2005). This suggests a possible shift in the strategies and tactics in non-profit advocacy. A dearth of studies investigates to what extent NPOs adopt strategies in achieving policy changes as well as creating public debate on issues of concern. This study aims to combine these two bodies of research to add to the debate on the NPOs political role by identifying the factors underlying engagement in (a) political advocacy, and (b) civic awareness on public issues, as perceived by NPOs in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium). We adopt a mixed methods approach. The quantitative logistic regression analysis is based on data collected by means of a two-wave survey directed to the directors of NPOs (N = 496) active at the Flemish leveli in the human well-being-, social economy- and sociocultural domain. We subsequently aim to test and refine our findings by means of in-depth interviews with nonprofit representatives (leaders, social workers and volunteers) that indicated either successful or unsuccessful engagement in nonprofit political activity. Doing so, this study contributes to the study of the political role of non-profit organizations in two ways. First, this study draws on relevant insights on the changing political strategies of NPOs from outside the field of non-profit management to enrich our understand of NPOs advocacy role. Second, this study responds to the call for more multi-methods studies in the field of nonprofit in order to compensate for the inherent weaknesses associated with individual methods.

Keywords:POST-CORPORATIST WELFARE STATE, ADVOCACY, NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

Disciplines:Social policy, Social work not elsewhere classified, Voluntary associations, participation and civil society