Commentary: Beyond Revenue Dependence

• Date: 01 January 2014
• Published date: 01 January 2014
• Author: Carol Kellermann
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12172

Beyond Revenue Dependence 25

Carol Kellermann

Citizens Budget Commission

Beyond Revenue Dependence Commentary

Carol Kellermann is president of the

Citizens Budget Commission. She has more

than 25 years of experience in leadership

positions in nonprof‌i t, philanthropic, and

government settings. She served as interim

executive director of the Alliance for Young

Artists and Writers and PENCIL, Inc., and as

consultant to City University of New York.

As executive director and chief executive

off‌i cer of the September 11 Fund, she over-

saw the provision of grants and assistance

for the needs of victims of the September

11 attacks. Prior to that, she was executive

director of Learning Leaders. Kellermann

was chief of staff to Congressman Charles

E. Schumer and held executive positions

in New York City government, including

deputy commissioner of the Department of

Finance. She holds degrees from Harvard

Law School and Harvard College.

E-mail: ckellermann@cbcny.org

A

s a practitioner with experience in both

government and the nonprof‌i t sector, I found

Deanna Malatesta and Craig R. Smith’s

discussion of resource dependence (RD) theory in

their article “Lessons from Resource Dependence

 eory for Contemporary Public and Nonprof‌i t

Management” interesting and helpful in thinking

about the response of both sectors to the “new nor-

mal” of scarce resources.

It is certainly true that public and nonprof‌i t executives

face a new f‌i scal reality of resource (i.e., revenue) scar-

city. For example, in New York State, where I live and

work, cost-of-living adjustments to state contracts with

social service providers used to be taken for granted;

they have not received one in f‌i ve years. Moreover, the

stress of the recession has had an impact not only on

government funding but also funding from founda-

tions and private philanthropists.

As described by the authors, RD theory posits that

mergers and other forms of alliance, whether hori-

zontal or vertical, are driven by the motivation of

managers to f‌i nd resources despite the risks of loss of

power and autonomy. But rarely are organizational

changes of this magnitude explained entirely by one

factor or goal.

It is certainly true that the need for adequate and

stable sources of revenue has sparked more widespread