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As the country faces challenges in response to the current political climate, societal tragedies, and environmental disasters, citizens are besieged by nonprofit organizations requesting donations. In response to these requests, individual citizens are seeking out innovative ways to engage in philanthropy. One recent innovation in grassroots philanthropy is giving circles where individuals pool their money, knowledge, and resources to make a social impact. The functions of giving circles can be likened to collaborations in that giving circles encompass the key characteristics of collaboration including communication, consensus decision-making, focusing on common goals, a shared vision and ethical approach, pooling of resources, depending on social capital, and trust. The proposed framework of philanthropic collaboration creates an intersection between the collaboration, philanthropy, and social movement literatures by proving an innovative lens through which to view giving circles. The conceptual framework provides a tool for scholars and practitioners to define and operationalize this new innovation in grassroots philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the case studies on collaboration tout the success of collaborative efforts, and theory building efforts focus almost exclusively on conditions for successful collaboration. Notably missing from the literature are efforts to comprehend why collaborations fail. Given that participants in a collaboration are invested in the collaborative effort, why does a collaboration fail? In addition, does the membership of the collaborative effort impact the factors for success or failure? By examining extant literature on both collaboration success and collaboration failure, we seek to identify a set of factors common across the literature that are foundational to a framework of collaboration failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By expanding understanding of individuals' reasons to serve on nonprofit boards, practitioners will be able to improve recruitment and retention of quality board members. This study explores board members' reasons for joining and continuing to serve on a volunteer nonprofit board of directors. A survey of nonprofit board members shows similarities in reasons for initially serving and continuing to serve on a board, but analysis of group means reveals significant differences on 20 of 27 dimensions examined. Organizational-level reasons are reported as more important as a result of board service, whereas individual- and community-level items decline in importance after board service. Latent factors that appear to be important for both joining and continuing to serve on a nonprofit board include organizational commitment, personal growth, recognition, and socialness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fields of public administration, policy, and public affairs, more women are earning PhD degrees and entering male-dominated academic and public sector job markets. This trend raises questions about the future of dissertation research and implications of gender on methodological approach and research design. This study examines the state of dissertation methods and research design in public administration, policy, and public affairs doctoral programs through the lens of gender between the years 2010 and 2014. A total of 986 dissertations are reviewed from PhD programs housed in universities that have NASPAA accredited MPA programs. Chi-square tests of independence and multinomial logistic regression illustrate that choice of methodological approach is not independent of gender, but rather there is a significant association between the two, and choice of research design also impacts methodological approach. Descriptive statistics show an increased trend in females using quantitative approaches to dissertation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on previous models of collaboration processes, this article expands and revises the antecedent-process-outcome framework used to explain collaboration. The article discusses why this framework needs to be expanded to include the element of institutional structure. We propose a modified framework to explain collaboration that includes a typology of citizen-based, agency-based, and mixed partnerships. Furthermore, the article draws from the expansive body of literature on watershed collaboration to propose additional antecedents that influence institutional structures and, in turn, alter the process patterns in the collaboration “black box.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many MPA programs are struggling to identify ways to evaluate their outcomes. This paper describes the development and implementation of a method for assessing student learning outcomes in the MPA program at the University of Colorado Denver. The multi-method approach makes use of rubrics to examine whether students demonstrate the desired knowledge and skill, and student surveys to describe students' perceptions of their abilities in the same areas. Means for gaining faculty commitment to the process and making use of the information for program improvement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]