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This paper considers the application content and processes of forty Australian philanthropic grant-makers of varying sizes. It presents and briefly discusses the methods and content of pre-grant inquiry, and then considers the underlying nature and purposes of pre-grant inquiry. It is suggested that pre-grant inquiry functions, in part, as a sensemaking device that enables foundations to act with some degree of comfort in an uncertain, ambiguous and risky environment. The paper concludes by suggesting that Australian foundations need to consider carefully the bases, uses, functions and potentially toxic consequences of pre-grant inquiry before it is developed further. Although the data reported are from Australian foundations, many of the wider issues are of relevance to foundations in the UK and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The third sector in Australasia face s some serious challenges as it tries to deal with the fallout from climate change and from a neoliberal economic and political environment, with its increasing inequality and injustice. Within that context, Australian and New Zealand Third Sector Research Inc. (ANZTSR) plays a potentially crucial role in researching, documenting and advocating for more positive solutions. However, it is also subject to the danger of being co-opted within the prevailing economic/political hegemony. This paper therefore examines the current state of the third sector and the achievements of ANZTSR, and identifies some of the key challenges that third sector researchers must address if the organisation is to be a useful force into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the expression of organisational hybridity, where community based organisations are exposed to the logics of across organisational (State, Third & Market) sectors (inter) or within Third sector organisational types (intra). Organisational hybridity can be defined as a blending of value systems, organisational cultures, co-ordination mechanisms and action logics. Hybridity theory engages with the assimilation of sector logics as a normative process and can be applied to identify the effect increasing hybridity has on third sector organisations. We apply and evaluate a tool for measuring levels of hybridity, the 'hybridity lens", in order to gain an understanding of hybridity issues within individual organisations. Using an online survey we apply the tool to determine how intra and inter organisational hybridity manifest themselves in the New Zealand third sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emerged from a workshop presented at the ANZTSR conference in Sydney 2016, and from a series of workshops leading to that conference. The purpose of the paper is to adopt a transdisciplinary perspective, and so encourage a broader discussion of where the third sector fits within current political and economic trends, and within the even broader environmental crisis in which we find ourselves, often identified as the Anthropocene,'the Age of Humans'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how Australia's leading housing not-for-profits have been developing their organisations and their businesses in a period of significant political, policy and regulatory change, and rising financial and market uncertainty. It aims to improve understanding of how such organisation s have adapted to this environment, and to contribute to conceptualisations of housing not-for-profits as hybrid organisations operating between state, market and civil society forces. The research on which the paper is based used a modified Delphi methodology to gain 'insider' insights from leaders of not-for-profit housing organisations about how their agencies are negotiating diverse internal and external inf luences on their strategy and operations. The paper uses this evidence to explore how and why organisational hybridity creates strategic opportunities but also carries significant organisational risks. The paper concludes by identifying areas of tension that confront third sector housing providers and discusses some implications for policy-making and industry practice in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Third sector organisations (TSOs) are often unaware of the importance of intellectual property (IP) protection. This is because TSOs are typically focused on their social objectives, rather than on commercial benefits. Additionally, TSOs have unique challenges in dealing with IP protection, such as a lack of time, a lack of funding and a lack of knowledge. This article takes a practicebased approach in considering, firstly, what is relevant, protectable IP in the third sector context; secondly, the unique challenges facing TSOs and why their IP may be under-managed; and thirdly, how TSOs can improve their IP protection. The article proposes that there is a need for TSOs to balance their diverse objectives in fostering and protecting partnerships and collaborations with an effective IP protection strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of apartment complexes and master-planned estates has resulted in the establishment of mandatory, volunteer-run associations for the management of such ownership arrangements. Although research on private housing has traditionally been within the field of housing studies, it can be argued that these owner corporations are third sector organisations and thus of interest to third sector scholars. This paper argues that owner corporations are non-profit organisations which are reliant on volunteer labour and which have the ability to successfully compete with third sector organisations for funding grants. Using qualitative research data, the paper highlights how the growth of owner corporations has policy and financial implications for traditional third sector organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Becoming more businesslike is seen by many not-for-profit (NFP) agencies as necessary for survival, if not expansion, under the conditions required by New Public Management (NPM). Charged with delivering social services in a competitive environment, NFP agencies must often compete with each other, and with for-profit (FP) organisations, in order to obtain and retain government contracts. While some things are known about why NFP agencies emulate FPs, and the means by which they do so, little is known about whether adopting a more businesslike approach yields benefits. In this study we compare attitudes to profit maximisation against other client-oriented goals among NFP agencies delivering contracted employment services in Australia. We find that profit-maximising attitudes have increased dramatically between 1998 and 2012. Yet despite this, we find no correlation between a profit-orientated disposition and the rate at which services improve for clients. We conclude that while becoming more businesslike might be beneficial for a host of reasons, it does not appear to help agencies meet their key performance indicator: achieving positive outcomes for those they seek to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to evaluate the social return on investment (SROI) for a non-government organisation working with children in south-western Sydney. Daystar Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that develops in-school education programmes to assist children at risk of not fulfilling their educational potential. Due to the non-monetary nature of benefits (and costs), SROI is employed, which is similar to evaluating the (financial) return on investment, however a social component is integrated into the analysis. It is a relatively new concept, developed at the Harvard Business School for the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund in 2000. The present study calculated the social return on investment for Daystar to be between $2 and $9. Conservatively speaking, this suggests that the social return on any investment outlay to the Breakfast Club program is at least doubled, in terms of its benefits to society as a whole. However, a lack of data proved to be a problem, and this is likely to be widespread within non-government organisations. Either researchers need to be prepared to construct primary data for non-for-profit organisations, especially smaller ones, or there needs to be a system of assisting NGOs in the preparation of data that can be useful in future SROI evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appointment of a member to a board of directors in the third sector is a largely unexplained and unquestioned process. Generally, non-executive board members are unpaid and are often appointed via membership of a social network, without any formal recruitment or selection processes. These same board members also play an important and responsible role in the governance and sustainability of socially responsible third sector organisations. Hence, there is a real tension between the seemingly informal appointment process and the formal responsibility of such a position. This paper aims to shed light on the appointment processes to Australian boards of directors in non-executive positions in the third sector. There is little critique of this 'idealised' rationalised model, which is the dominant model used to describe the appointment process in the human resource management literature (Legge 1995). In fact, critique of appointments made using such social networks are rarely discussed even when those networks are physically mapped by the director interlock researchers (Alexander 2003). Appointment processes used in board-level appointments are less well covered in the literature, other than in this rationalist frame (Moodie 2001). A questionnaire collected demographic data from 65 board members from a diverse group of third sector organisations. Interviews followed with eight of those board members. Thematic analysis from the questionnaire and interviews allowed for the emergence of themes about perceptions of board membership appointment. boards. Keywords Networks; directors; third sector; appointment Introduction This paper explores findings on the social network appointment processes for non-executive directors on Australian third sector organisation (TSO) boards. Both overt and covert appointment processes for non-executive board members within the third sector are considered. Overt appointment processes include practices such as direct advertising - for example, via recruitment services such as the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Pathways annual director recruitment drive, or executive recruitment firms (AICD 2012). Those interested in the roles, and deemed capable of meeting the criteria described in the advertisements, are able to apply for these positions through online application portals. Covert appointment processes are those which are less transparent (Searle 2003). These may include practices such as a direct approach from company chairpersons or other personal recommendations via social networks. Contacting 'suitable' applicants to ensure they apply for the position may be one way that director networks can operate to filter access to the role of non-executive director [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the implications of parental unemployment on the wellbeing, development and protection of children, in light of evidence over the years that parental unemployment can have profound and long-lasting effects on children and their future life trajectories. These two phenomena are not usually considered in relation to each other, especially in the context of government employment policy and services. The paper aims to demonstrate the absence of consideration of the child in current employment policy and service-delivery. It outlines key issues associated with how unemployment relates to children, gives an overview of contemporary employment policy and service responses, and locates these within the current discourse on what constitutes children's wellbeing and protection and the stated objectives of 'Protecting Children is Everybody's Business' (the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children 2009-2020). Third-sector organisations (TSOs) have, until now, been active in the area of child protection (for example, in providing emergency care for children), and in the area of providing employment services. But the big omission is that their expertise in both these areas has not been brought together in ways that might assist in a broader conception of and approach to child development, including the employment status of the child's parents/carers. As motivation for this analysis, we point to the recent reconfiguration of government departments in South Australia, which has been accompanied by a shift (in nomenclature, at least) from 'children's services' to 'child development', thus f lagging possibilities for moving beyond narrow conceptions of protection ('negative freedoms') to a more comprehensive approach to child development 6 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 2 ('positive freedoms' and 'capabilities'). We do, however, express reservations about the continued absence of the basic recognition of the need to treat child wellbeing in the context of family fortunes, most notably the employment status of the adults in the household. On this litmus test of integrated service-delivery in South Australia, newly created departments of child development have yet to grasp the importance of broadening their conceptions of children's wellbeing, and the scope of their practice, to protect children growing up in locations of employment disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on recent research on regional strategic planning in four Australian states/territories. While some states have taken a participative approach, consulting exhaustively, others have adopted a corporate style, consulting selectively and hence developing a highly politicised planning product. Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory have each approached the task differently. Consequently, the extent of participation and civic engagement, particularly through the conduit of third-sector organisations, has varied considerably. Tasmania Together, the Tasmanian twenty-year strategic plan, is the oldest of the four, currently approaching its tenth birthday, and is arguably an example of successful policy transfer. This developed into policy diffusion as the approach spread across other Australian states and territories. As participants in the Tasmania Together process, third-sector organisations have engaged in partnership agreements with government to develop and implement strategies, as well as assisting the Tasmania Together Progress Board to assess progress towards agreed benchmarks. This independent approach, in which the Progress Board is legislatively separated from the government of the day, has come at a cost. Where political will is waning, it falls to the third sector and the community at large to maintain the momentum. The models adopted in the other states differ and are at earlier stages. Nevertheless, it is clear that the role of the third sector in each is vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The position of the third sector in fulfilling collective environmental aspirations has been strengthening in Australia, at least partially due to the growing number of Environmental Community Organisations (ECOs). ECOs play an important role in the ongoing stewardship of the natural environment; their duties range from managing local nature reserves to mounting public campaigns in order to curtail further environmental degradation. However, apart from being labelled as an 'interest organisations', ECOs in general have slipped under the radar of third sector research in Australia. This paper responds to this gap by reporting on one aspect of a 2008 survey of ECOs undertaken to develop a broader understanding of the linkages between organisational social capital and information and communication technologies for strengthening environmental stewardship in Western Australia (WA). In this paper, the characteristics, contributions and challenges of eighty-one ECOs operating in the Perth region of WA are explored. Based on analysis of survey responses and interviews, this paper contends that the contributions of ECOs in the Perth region highlight the extent of the third sector's role and influence in addressing existing and emerging environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]