Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-29-2002
Abstract
Acquiring sufficient resources is a continual struggle for many nonprofit organizations. "Nonprofit organizations that have often needed to accomplish the ir mission with limited resources find themselves stretched to the breaking point," (Peter Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, 2001). The struggle is not limited to financial resources, but includes human resources--board, staff, and volunteer--as well. The concept of social capital may be an important one for nonprofit managers to understand and apply as a means of addressing this problem. Social capital encompasses building networks of relationships, which enhance cooperation, trust, shared vision and resource exchange in creating organizational value (Tsai and Ghoshal, 1998). The literature offers a number of articles, which attest to the usefulness of social capital in creating organizational effectiveness (Prusak and Cohen, 2001; Ford, 1999). I was not able to find any research where the extent and efficacy of building and leveraging social capital was studied in a nonprofit organization. The purpose of this research is to illustrate how one nonprofit organization uses social capital as a way of furthering its mission. The paper depicts how the organization's culture supports the development and retention of social capital. This research sheds light on various practices by which nonprofit organizations can improve their effectiveness, increase their community ownership and attract the resources necessary to continue their mission into the future.
Keywords
nonprofit organization--management
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
King, Nancy K., "How Nonprofit Organizations Develop and Leverage Social Capital" (2002). Student Scholarship. 245.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/245