Elizabeth A. M. Searing Archives - Nonprofit Academic Centers Council

Feeding the Flock: The Role of the Revenue Portfolio in the Financial Growth of Congregations and Religious Organizations

Dr. William M. Plater
Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of
Philanthropic Studies, Public Policy, and English
Indiana University Indianapolis

Dr. Genevieve Shaker
Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

R. Regina Cline
Visiting Professor
Merrilee Alexander Kick College of Business and Entrepreneurship
Texas Woman’s University

Feeding the Flock: The Role of the Revenue Portfolio in the Financial Growth of Congregations and Religious Organizations
Elizabeth A. M. Searing, Nathan J. Grasse, R. Regina Cline
Nonprofit Management & Leadership, February 2025
This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

There have been fewer population-level studies of religious organization revenues compared to other nonprofit organizations. This discrepancy is likely due to the exemption of houses of worship from filing the U.S. Form 990, which is the basis for most nonprofit financial analysis in academic literature. Using granular financial data on over 30,000 religious organizations in Canada from 2009 to 2016, the authors explore the characteristics of the revenue portfolios for this under-studied subsector of tax-exempt organizations.

In addition to providing useful descriptive information, such as the differences between funding portfolios by religion or denomination, they identify characteristics associated with financial growth using dynamic difference-generalized method of moments estimations. They find that donations where receipts were given drive almost all portfolios, while revenues that comprise the portfolio fringe vary widely in form and importance for growth. This study yields information useful to practitioners and researchers interested in nonprofit finance and the financial management.

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing is an Associate Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also an Adjunct research Professor at Carleton University, Canada. Dr. Searing’s primary research focus is the financial management of nonprofit and social enterprise organizations, but she also conducts work on comparative social economy more broadly. She is an Associate Editor and editorial board member of Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and an editorial advisory board member at VOLUNTAS and the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management (JPBAFM). Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Nathan J. Grasse is an Associate Professor in the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (MPNL) program at Carleton University. He is an associate editor at the Journal of Civil Society, a member of the editorial board of Public Administration Review, and a board member of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, and has published in journals such as Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Policy Studies Journal, and the Review of Public Personnel Administration. His academic focus primarily revolves around the governance and financial management of public-serving organizations.

R. Regina Cline is a visiting professor at Texas Woman’s University in the Merrilee Alexander Kick College of Business and Entrepreneurship’s Health Care Administration program. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Dallas, completing her dissertation entitled “Equity and administrative burden in comparative race and immigration policy: A study of refugee experiences.” Regina’s professional background includes management positions in the field of substance abuse treatment. She also founded and directed Embracing Diversity, Inc, a 501(c)3 nonprofit in Florida and in Mississippi, starting in 2014. In addition, she is a public speaker, trainer, consultant, and community organizer.

Nonprofit Human Resources: Crisis Impacts and Mitigation Strategies

Sarah L. Young
Professor of Public Administration
Director of Research, KSU CARES
Kennesaw State University

Kimberly K. Wiley
Assistant Professor
University of Florida

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing
Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management
School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences
University of Texas at Dallas

Nonprofit Human Resources: Crisis Impacts and Mitigation Strategies
Sarah L. Young, Kimberly K. Wiley, and Elizabeth A. M. Searing
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | May 2024

This study empirically evaluates the relationships between the state and human service nonprofits’ human resources during a crisis. We employ qualitative content analysis to critically assess the experiences of 31 nonprofits that experienced the 2015 to 2017 Illinois Budget Impasse. We evaluated the nonprofits’ strategic human resource management implications through a resource dependency lens at three levels: micro-, meso-, and macro-. Human service nonprofits pull from a toolbox of strategies in surprising ways. Strategy choices were intrinsically linked to the impacts experienced by the individual workers (micro-) and organization (meso-). Micro-level impacts included additional emotional labor and reduced benefits, while meso-level impacts included loss of capacity and short-term planning changes. Finally, the sector-level impacts included a multipronged brain drain of the nonprofit human resource industry. The findings are helpful for nonprofit employees, managers, policymakers, and anyone concerned about the delivery of social services by nonprofits during crises.

Dr. Sarah L. Young, Professor of Public Administration at Kennesaw State University, serves as the Director of Research for CARE Services, a campus support program for students who have experienced foster care or unaccompanied homelessness. Her research uses systems-based approaches to study the intersection of nonprofit, public management, and equity, especially during periods of crisis. Dr. Young earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University’s Askew School of Public Administration and Policy and her M.B.A. in nonprofit management from the University of Tampa Sykes College of Business. She is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Affairs Education and serves on the editorial board of Teaching Public Administration.

Dr. Kimberly Wiley researches the relationship between nonprofit organizations and their public funders as well as qualitative methodology. She is particularly interested in domestic violence advocacy organizations serving families and youth. Though, she also enjoys testing new qualitative methods on data like social media and television. She won several awards for her work on faculty sexual misconduct and nonprofits in crisis. Her scholarship has been published in Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration, Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, and Public Policy & Administration.

Dr. Elizabeth A. M. Searing is an Assistant Professor of Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Searing’s primary research focus is the financial management of nonprofit and social enterprise organizations, but she also conducts work on comparative social economy more broadly. She is an Associate Editor and editorial board member of Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and an editorial advisory board member at VOLUNTAS and the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management (JPBAFM). Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.