DEATH OF NONPROFITS? U.S. HUMAN SERVICE NONPROFITS DISSOLUTION

This study explores why human service nonprofit organizations cease to exist from two theoretical viewpoints: organizational ecology and resource-based view. Our county-level fixed effects survival analysis identifies three mechanisms explaining human service nonprofits’ dissolution, using 2007-2018 data from multiple sources - National Center for Charitable Statistics, Census, American Community Survey, MIT Election Lab, and Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. We clarify how ecological selection processes relate to nonprofit dissolution occur within communities over time. Specifically, first, at the macro-level, an improving political environment and worsening economic and social environments within communities associate with a greater likelihood of nonprofit dissolution. Second, at the meso-level, as the environment becomes increasingly competitive, nonprofits are more likely to dissolve. Third, at the micro-level, nonprofits’ resource management competencies still relate to a lower likelihood of dissolution. These findings extend research on nonprofit organizations’ life and death by showing turbulent and multi-level relationships of ecological and organizational factors constituting the human service delivery system with human service nonprofit dissolution in the United States.