Incentivizing For-Profit Investment in the Non-Profit Initiatives of The Community Cooperative: An Evaluation Study (ePub)

This qualitative study evaluated the steps necessary for a non-profit organization to incentivize private investment in its non-profit initiatives. The research questions for this study examined the knowledge, motivation and organizational factors that influenced the Community Cooperative's efforts to incentivize private investment in its non-profit initiatives. The research methods included interviews with the Board of Directors of the Community Cooperative and a document review. The researcher received unanimous approval by the Board of Directors to conduct the study and gained approval through school leadership and the university's Institutional Review Board.
The data analysis produced several themes. These themes were that the Board of Directors possessed procedural knowledge gaps and self-efficacy motivational gaps. Additionally, the organizational settings did not provide enough structural support or accountability. Without enough structural support and accountability, the organization could develop ideas but failed to execute on those ideas. These themes were exhibited by the stakeholders' inability to collect data and create programming that incentivized private investment in its non-profit initiatives.
Recommendations included allocating resources towards the development of programming and data collection that incentivize private investment. The other recommendation includes providing training for the stakeholders in the organization so that they learn how to execute the steps required to achieve the organizational goal.