EAGER: The Origins of Successful NGOs

National Bureau Of Economic Research Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER award funds data collection from existing published sources. The research team hopes to investigate whether or not employee "spinoff" organizations in the nonprofit sector are similar to spinoff firms in the private sector. Spinoffs are new organizations or firms established by a former employee who is able to use skills from his/her previous job in establishing the new firm or organization. The research team wants to determine whether or not spinoffs are more successful in the non-profit sector than comparable organizations that are started by non-employees. The first step of the exploratory research is to collect and tabulate the characteristics of the founders of employee spinoffs. Were their parent firms mainly in the public, for-profit, or nonprofit sector? Were they mainly performing the same activities or services? Do these answers differ significantly between membership organizations and service organizations? We will gain insight into how these NGOs originate in addition to from where they originate. Are the founding workers exceptionally skilled? Did they occupy managerial positions? Do they tend to be older or more experienced? The second step of our proposed research is to correlate the origins and characteristics of the founding workers with NGO success. Does spinoff from the public sector promote success,possibly due to the establishment of a complementary relationship with a large or stable public entity? Does spinoff from other NGOs make success less likely, perhaps because of diminishing returns to exploitation of a donor base? We can expect higher skill levels of the founding workers to be associated with a higher probability of new NGO survival, but how strong is the connection?