Study highlights key issues in nonprofit partnerships

• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30378

6

NOVEMBER 2017NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

(See PARTNERSHIPS on page 8)

Nonprot Research

Study highlights key issues

in nonprot partnerships

A new study of 45 nonprots shows that partner-

ing with like-minded organizations can help to scale

up programs so long as attention is paid to some key

aspects—most notably, how the partnership is struc-

tured and how the partners are found and selected.

The study, Strategies to Scale Up Social Pro-

grams: Pathways, Partnerships and Fidelity, was

commissioned by the New York City–based Wallace

Foundation in an effort to gain insights into how

partnerships can bring effective social programs to

more participants.

The programs studied tackle some of society’s

most challenging issues, including climate change,

illiteracy, infant mortality, hunger and homelessness.

The 45 efforts studied took three main paths to

scale their programs using partnerships:

• Branching, in which a lead organization devel-

oped a program, distributed it among one or more

partners and spearheaded implementation. Accord-

ing to the researchers, this allowed for the greatest

control but took the most time.

• Afliates, in which additional organizations

offered a program using their own resources. An ex-

ample of this is the National Association for Urban

Debate Leagues, which provides seed money and

assistance for local urban debate organizations to

become nonprots and then afliates of the national

network. This resulted in lower control by the lead

organization, researchers found.

• A distribution network, in which the lead organi-

zation worked with a partner to reach members, who

had the option to modify the program. Often the

distribution partner is a national organization with

many local member agencies, such as the YMCA or

Boys & Girls Clubs of America. This method offers

the lowest control by the lead organization but is

fastest to scale, the study found.

Major philanthropic giving by Chinese and Chi-

nese Americans is soaring in the United States and

China, fueled by a substantial increase in the num-

ber of private charitable foundations from Chinese

individuals and families in both countries, a new

study has found.

According to research from the Global Chinese

Philanthropy Initiative, major gifts by Chinese

Americans rose nearly vefold, to just under $500

million, from 2008 to 2014, as the number of

Chinese-American foundations in the United States

rose to nearly 1,300, a 418 percent increase from

2000 to 2014.

Meanwhile in China, philanthropic giving hit

$16.7 billion in 2014 as the number of registered

charitable foundations totaled 5,545, a 430 percent

increase from 2006 to 2016.

The study, Chinese and Chinese American Phi-

lanthropy, is the first academic undertaking to

examine the size, motivation and impact of giving

by Chinese and Chinese Americans in the United

States and China.

The study examines the giving patterns of Ameri-

cans of Chinese descent and of those in mainland

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

Other ndings from the study include:

• The surge in the number of Chinese-American

foundations is relatively recent, with more than 80

percent of them being established since 2000.

• Four Chinese-American foundations (Cyrus

Tang, J.T. Tai & Co., Chan Soon-Shiong and Clarence

T.C. Ching) have more than $100 million in assets.

• The number of private foundations in China

jumped tenfold, to 3,980 in 2016, over the past

decade.

• The Lao Niu Foundation dispersed the most

gifts of any private foundation in China in 2014,

distributing more than $30 million.

The full study can be found online at http://www

.globalchinesephilanthropy.org. ■

Study shows giving by Chinese and Chinese Americans on the rise