Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action
Roseanne M. Mirabella, PhD
Associate Professor
College of Business and Public Management
Kean University
Angela M. Eikenberry, PhD
Professor and School Director
School of Public Policy
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Connecticut
Angela R. Logan, PhD
NACC President
St. Andre Bessette Academic Director
Master of Nonprofit Administration
Associate Teaching Professor
Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame
Heather Carpenter, PhD
Executive Director
Institute for Nonprofit Administration & Research
Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
Louisiana State University Shreveport
Elizabeth J. Dale, PhD
Director and Associate Professor
Nonprofit Leadership
Seattle University
Katherine Prendella
Doctoral Student
School of Communication and Information
Rutgers-New Brunswick
Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action: Concepts, Applications, and Future Directions
Eds. Roseanne M. Mirabella (Kean University, US), Tracey M. Coule (Sheffield Hallam University, UK), and Angela M. Eikenberry (University of Connecticut, US)
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024
In August 2024, Edward Elgar Publishing released the Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action, edited by Roseanne M. Mirabella (Kean University) and Angela M. Eikenberry (University of Connecticut), alongside numerous contributors, including NACC member representatives Angela R. Logan (NACC President), Heather Carpenter, and Elizabeth J. Dale. (For a full list of editors and contributors, click here).
This insightful Handbook brings together leading and emerging scholars within the field of nonprofit organization, serving as a call to action for academics to interrogate key contemporary issues such as backsliding and authoritarianism. It meticulously distinguishes traditional, often marginalist perspectives from nuanced counterarguments to balance out the field.
The Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action illustrates opportunities and challenges for future researchers within the sector and presses the reader to imagine a better, more equitable future. Chapters employ a variety of vital theoretical lenses, for example utilizing postcolonial theory, critical feminist theory, queer theory, critical disability theory and post-structural theory. They provide a timely, inter-contextual narration of the many roles enacted by nonprofit and voluntary organizations today.
Approaching nonprofit organizing as an ever-expanding topic, this crucial Handbook will be an important read for scholars of critical management studies, public administration, and public policy. It will additionally benefit researchers within the philanthropic studies field hoping to gain insight into the future of their discipline.
Below, we feature chapters from the volume authored by some of our NACC member representatives, highlighting their contributions to this publication. We would also like to share that in addition to editing the volume, Dr. Mirabella also co-authored a chapter, “Neocolonialism’s Perpetuation of Institutional Life of Disabled Individuals through the Rhetoric of Philanthropy and Charity,” with her daughter, Katherine Prendella (Doctoral Student, Rutgers-New Brunswick).
The Nature of Critical Global Civil Society Scholarship: Reviewing the State of the Art 1972-2021
Angela M. Eikenberry, Jennifer Dodge, and Tracey M. Coule
This chapter examines global civil society scholarship published in three key field journals—Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Voluntas—with particular attention to the most critical work originating from or focusing on countries outside the more commonly studied (“Western,” white) Anglosphere and European context. The 65 articles identified converge around two major areas: problematizing meanings of civil society concepts and practices, and problematizing assumptions about relationships. Within these themes, scholars emphasize the importance of context and political economy; societal transformation and development, democratization, and emancipation; and debates about what is the best way to study civil society in ways that uphold epistemic justice —a global South-informed unified approach, or a more contextualized country or region approach. Finally, it is noted that articles still seemed limited in their use of epistemologies and theories from parts of the world outside of the Anglosphere and Europe.
Decolonizing Nonprofit, NGO, and Development Higher Education: Valuing Indigenous Knowledge in the Majority World
Roseanne M. Mirabella, Heather Carpenter, and Ibrahim Shafau
This chapter challenges the hegemony of the Minority World over higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Minority World and proposes recommendations to decommodify higher education, refocus curricula and pedagogical approaches to challenge global inequities and neocolonial domination, empower communities to resist hegemonic discourses, and remove the veil of cultural blindness. By reviewing the major influences on HEIs generally and the application of these discourses in the case of nonprofit and nongovernmental organization education particularly, the authors highlight the ways in which future nonprofit and nongovernmental organization leaders are steeped in the language of development, development theory, and development studies, further solidifying the grip of the Minority World on the Majority World. They provide alternative structures and processes to challenge and reconfigure Minority World hegemonic practices underscoring the value of alternative frames that prioritize voices, perspectives, and understandings of stakeholders from the Majority World.
The Racialization of Philanthropic and Nonprofit Organizations: A Critical Analysis of White Supremacy and Economic Injustice in the Sector
Angela R. Logan and Maureen Emerson Feit
Philanthropic organizations, and the nonprofits that rely on philanthropic giving, are built upon a vast and persistent racial wealth gap in the United States. In this chapter, the authors call for intentional and sustained attention to intersections of race and class in the dynamics between organized philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. Combining scholarship on elite philanthropy with critical theories of structural racism, they argue that systems of unearned white advantage have simultaneously fueled organized philanthropy and muted the philanthropic contributions of communities of color. They examine how interactions between organized philanthropy and nonprofits facilitate the racialization of these organizations as spaces that center the interests of white donors and encourage the reproduction and reinforcement of racial inequality in core functions of nonprofits. Finally, they consider the implications of the perpetuation of white supremacy in the sector and offer avenues for transformation in policy, research, and practice.
Burn it to the Ground: Queer Theory, (Hetero)normativities, and Binaries in Nonprofit Organizations
Seth J. Meyer, Elizabeth J. Dale, and Kareem K. M. Willis
In this chapter the authors use queer theory, a critical theory that questions heteronormative understandings of society, to challenge normalized definitions and concepts in nonprofit organizations. They advance alternative and arguably more emancipatory interpretations of nonprofit organizations by ‘queering’ some of the traditional binaries that structure how we organize and operate nonprofit organizations and their work. They begin by queering the definition of what constitutes a nonprofit organization and discuss how compulsory heterosexuality manifests in organizations. They critically investigate four binaries, including the relationship between donors and beneficiaries, funders and grantors, employees and clients, and the organization and community, and argue for more fluid, power-sharing relationships. Throughout their analysis, they show how queer theory can be integrated into nonprofit scholarship and generate new questions with which to investigate the nonprofit sector.
Neocolonialism’s Perpetuation of Institutional Life of Disabled Individuals through the Rhetoric of Philanthropy and Charity
Kate Prendella and Roseanne M. Mirabella
This chapter utilizes critical disability theory, voluntourism studies, and neocolonial theory to discuss how the actions of philanthropists and nonprofit organizations from the Minority World have perpetuated the global marginalization and displacement of children, particularly disabled children. Tying the resurgence of orphanages to recolonization, the authors explore the role of these neoliberal institutions as sites of violence towards and control of disabled bodies. They explore the ways in which the charity rhetoric of disability popularized through media intersects with and abets the orphanage industrial complex supported by and dependent upon voluntourism, describing the ways in which the orphan tourism industry depends upon the exploitation of children to fuel its financial needs. Recognizing the toll that this system exacts on children, particularly children with disabilities, they end with a call for recognition and action to challenge and demolish this system of oppression and stigmatization centering the needs of children in this discourse.
Roseanne M. Mirabella, Ph.D. is member of the faculty of the College of Business and Public Management at Kean University. She conducts research on philanthropy and nonprofit and nongovernmental education and critical perspectives on nonprofit organizing. She has authored or co-authored many papers on nonprofit and nongovernment organization education and one co-edited book “Reframing Nonprofit Organizations: Democracy, Inclusion and Social Change” exploring the ways in which nonprofit management education programs can prepare students both to lead organizations as well as for their important role as advocates for the communities they serve. She is co-editor of the recently published Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action one of the first major surveys of critical scholarship within the field. She is past President of ARNOVA and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and is currently a member of the leadership team of the Critical Perspectives Section of ARNOVA.
Dr. Angela M. Eikenberry is Professor and Director in the School of Public Policy (SPP) at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the social, economic and political roles of philanthropy, voluntary associations, and nonprofit organizations in democratic governance. Empirical and theoretical areas of research include giving circles and collaborative giving, marketization of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy, social enterprise, democracy and social equity/justice areas related to nonprofits/philanthropy, and critical social theories.
Dr. Eikenberry’s work appears in dozens of peer-reviewed books, journal articles and book chapters and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Takeaway, and in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her book, Giving Circles: Philanthropy, Voluntary Association, Democracy won CASE’s John Grenzebach Research Award for Outstanding Research in Philanthropy. She also received a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research on giving circles in the UK, the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus-wide Awards for Distinguished Research or Creative Activity and Outstanding Graduate Mentor, and the 2023 NVSQ Best Paper Award. She is past President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Before coming to UConn SPP, Dr. Eikenberry was a Professor serving in several leadership positions at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, including as Chair of the School of Public Administration doctoral program and President and Grievance Officer of the UNO AAUP. She also helped found and run the nonprofit organization, Mode Shift Omaha.
Angela R. Logan, Ph.D. is an Associate Teaching Professor and the St. Andre Bessette Academic Director of the Master of Nonprofit Administration in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. In her role as Academic Director, she provides leadership to the team that oversees both formats of the Master of Nonprofit Administration degree, and as a member of the College’s Department of Management and Organization, she teaches core courses for both programs as well. Professor Logan’s honors and distinctions include the inaugural Notre Dame Faculty Black Excellence Award (2023) and the MNAR Outstanding Professor Award (2023). Prior to joining the College in 2013, Angela has over 25 years of experience in higher education and philanthropy, with a particular focus in the areas of education and diversity. Over the course of her career, she has served as the Program Officer for Education at The Harvest Foundation (Martinsville, VA), the Director of the Bonner Scholars Program at Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH), and the Director of Multicultural Affairs and the Admissions Counselor / Coordinator of Multicultural Admissions at Defiance College (Defiance, OH). Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, race, faith, and nonprofit and philanthropic leadership.
Dr. Heather Carpenter is a highly networked nonprofit professor, researcher, consultant, and trainer passionate about nonprofit capacity building and talent development. She has served as a nonprofit professor and academic program director for over ten years and a nonprofit leader for over 20 years. She serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit Administration and Research at LSU Shreveport. INAR’s mission is to conduct research and disseminate knowledge about nonprofit organizations. It has three programmatic areas: academics, professional development, and research.
She has published numerous academic journal articles and books. She previously served as co-editor and chief of the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership was on the board of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council the national accrediting body for nonprofit academic degree programs from 2017-2023. In 2022, the Nonprofit Times selected Dr. Carpenter as a Top 50 Power and Influence Nonprofit Leader.
Dr. Carpenter is a lifetime member of Girl Scouts, active in the Downtown Shreveport Rotary Club, and serves on the advisory committee for the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce Leadership Program. She was recently named to the Volunteer Louisiana Commission by the Governor, the state service commission that has a mission to “Strength Louisiana communities through volunteerism and national service.” Her husband is a Navy Veteran and Captain at Spirit Airlines, and they have a 13-year-old daughter.
She earned her Ph.D. in Leadership Studies with an emphasis on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leadership from the University of San Diego and a Master of Management in Nonprofit Administration from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.
Elizabeth J. Dale, Ph.D. is program director and associate professor in Nonprofit Leadership at Seattle University. A former development director and Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), her research interests include social justice philanthropy, giving among women and LGBTQ+ donors, and the intersection of gender and philanthropy. She has presented her research nationally and internationally and has provided commentary for The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and The Guardian. She completed her Ph.D. in Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and women’s and gender studies from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in women’s studies from The Ohio State University.
