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Open research questions in Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering

120 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,412 Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • For governance, this implies that high user-satisfaction scores are insufficient, and often misleading, proxies for the safety and efficacy of conversational AI systems.

    Real-Time Group Dynamics with LLM Facilitation: Evidence from a Charity Allocation Task · 2026 · DOI

  • . Harper & Row. Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence . Sage. The external control of organizations: A resource dependence . Stanford University.

    Strategic Partnerships in Social Marketing: A Qualitative Study of NGOs-Company Collaborations in Practices for Child Welfare in Türkiye · 2026 · DOI

  • Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1978). perspective . Harper & Row. Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence . Sage. The external control of organizations: A resource dependence . Stanford University.

    Strategic Partnerships in Social Marketing: A Qualitative Study of NGOs-Company Collaborations in Practices for Child Welfare in Türkiye · 2026 · DOI

  • Several avenues remain open. First, longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs could track whether teams adopting routines show the proposed measurable changes in referral diversity, promotion equity and perceived fairness over time. Second, cross-cultural comparison, particularly between network-dense cultures such as Israel and more institution-reliant labor markets, would clarify boundary conditions on which routines transfer. Third, intersectional analysis exploring how sponsorship dynamics vary at the intersection of gender, ethnicity and seniority would deepen the present account. Fourth, future work might examine role differences in sponsorship behavior, comparing the advocacy practices of engineering managers, HR leaders and external recruiters in more controlled designs. Fifth, intervention studies that implement specific normalization routines (sponsor minutes, referral-equity scripts) and measure outcomes over several promotion cycles would provide the causal evidence that the present cross-sectional design cannot supply.

    Normalizing Sponsorship: The Unspoken Pathways to Advancement in High-Tech · 2026 · DOI

  • Future re- search should triangulate Form 990 with press reports, litigation records, administrative enforcement data, and surveys to detect under-reported fraud, and examine how gover- nance mechanisms interact with institutional context (regulatory intensity, disclosure de- sign, funding mix) to shape nonprofit longevity.

    Nonprofit Fraud and Organizational Demise: The Role of Governance in Times of Crisis · 2026 · DOI

  • 1 - 2026Journal of the Social Sciences with a recommendation to conduct further research on individual factors regarding leadership orientations that aim to enhance volunteering culture, the provision of financial aid, and the introcuction of adequate training to develop leadership skills.

    The Reality of Volunteer Work in Local Communities from the Perspective of Volunteer Leaders in Al-Balqa Governorate: A Sociological Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite its contributions, this study has several limitations. First, data were collected through self-reported surveys, which may be subject to social desirability bias. Second, although cultural contexts were considered in interpreting findings, key cultural values such as collectivism and individualism were not directly measured, limiting explanatory power. Additionally, survey mode bias likely led to under-representation of wealthy respondents, and annual income may not fully reflect financial standing. Third, differences in data collection methods, with online surveys in the US and telephone interviews in Taiwan, as well as variations in questionnaire word- ing, may have introduced measurement inconsistencies and excluded marginalized groups without internet or telephone access. While both surveys were conducted in December 2022, minimizing acute pandemic effects, longer-term shifts in charitable behavior from COVID-19 may still influence cross-national comparisons.

    Donor Motivation and Civil Society Regimes from a Cross-Cultural and Institutional Perspective · 2026 · DOI

  • In addition to published benchmarking studies, this analysis was informed by internal, unpublished staffing data collected through the Size and Shape project at the University of Cambridge. These data were shared in confidence or as part of EAB membership and are not available for public release. While they cannot be independently verified, they provided valuable context for triangulating sector benchmarks and highlighting institutional disparities in staffing ratios. It also appears that the benchmarks on fundraising ROI are well developed, the ROI for alumni engagement remains less clearly defined, and further research is needed to mature our understanding of how staffing in this area translates into long-term philanthropic outcomes.

    Building smarter advancement teams: A formula for strategic staffing ratios across diverse institutions · 2026 · DOI

  • The framework implies a stronger focus on tasks and volunteering activities in survey measures. However, this also requires a narrow- ing of analytical scope, as mapping the full range of volunteering activities across civil society would make survey instruments impractically long. In crisis and disaster research, the repertoire of volunteering tasks is often easier to identify and describe com- prehensively, but outside such contexts, it becomes considerably more complex. Future research should therefore test and explore its empirical utility, particularly in non-crisis contexts. A key next step is to operationalize a repertoire of volunteering tasks, perhaps within smaller or thematically specific domains, since mapping the full scope of volunteering activities is infeasible. Developing such an operationalization would enable researchers to examine how dif- ferent tasks are distributed across formal and informal volunteer- ing. Moreover, the task-centered framework incorporates the recipients of volunteering into the conceptual model of volunteer- ing. However, empirical insights into recipients remain scarce, and only a few studies directly compare the receipt of formal and informal support (Höltmann et al., 2023; McCann & Evans, 2002). Consequently, understanding how recipients experience the help they receive would strengthen the empirical grounding of a task-centered approach. Finally, future research could explore how task-centered and motivation-based approaches may be inte- grated to better understand how different types of tasks are matched with volunteers across formal and informal settings. Funding statement. This research received no external funding. Supplementary material. The supplementary material for this article can be found at http://doi.org/10.1017/S0957876526000483. Competing interests. The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

    What Volunteers Do: Toward a Task-Centered Framework for Recognizing Informal Volunteering · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings provide practical insight for funders and nonprofit leaders about the organizational and board attributes that signal financial sustainability and suggest several avenues for additional research into the contingency, evolution, and interactivity of signals of nonprofit financial health.

    Signals of Financial Sustainability: Exploring Organizational and Board Factors as Correlates of Having Endowment Reserves and Conducting Audits for Three Types of Smaller Arts-oriented U.S. Nonprofits · 2024 · DOI

  • Abstract This paper provides a detailed overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the income of charitable organisations – an under-researched theme within social policy, which thus far has largely focused on the impact of the pandemic on individuals’ and households’ wellbeing.

    Charities’ income during the COVID-19 pandemic: administrative evidence for England and Wales · 2023 · DOI

  • Donors are important contributors to collection development in GLAM institutions, yet interactions and communications around policy and procedures with donors are under researched.

    “Evidence of Me” Becoming “Evidence of Us”: A Case Study of the Policy, Processes, Donor Relations and Responses of Selected New Zealand GLAM Institutions to Personal Donations of Collections and Artifacts · 2021 · DOI

  • Little is known about what leads to success in this field, especially in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries where the determinants of crowdfunding campaign success for projects are not identified.

    Determinants of crowdfunding success in central and eastern European countries · 2021 · DOI

  • Nonetheless, there is still uncertainty about several aspects of the relationship between volunteerism and the corporate realm and research on the relationship between CV and employer attractiveness is scarce.

    Do corporate volunteering programs and perceptions of corporate morality impact perceived employer attractiveness? · 2021 · DOI

  • This study sought to partly address the latter gap in the literature by examining NGO goals and goal/benefit attainment within the UN-ECOSOC consultative status program.

    NGO Goal-Setting/Attainment and Perceptions of Benefits Derived within the Framework of the UNECOSOC Consultative Status Program · 2020 · DOI

  • This research contributes to RMT by (1) identifying which resource types predict specific organizational impacts, (2) extending RMT to the unique context of post-Soviet Lithuania, and (3) illuminating the relationship between resources and impacts for an understudied unit of analysis (small, newly founded nonprofessionalized organizations).

    Which resources matter for what impacts? Resource mobilization and impacts of local SMOs in rural Lithuania, 2004–2006 · 2019 · DOI

  • Despite growing attention on this topic, the link between European Union (EU) funding to Turkish civil society organizations (CSOs) and their professionalization remain understudied.

    European Union funds and the assumed professionalization of Turkish civil society organizations · 2018 · DOI

  • While the role of volunteers in sustaining the Ukrainian armed forces against the backdrop of Russian aggression since 2014 has been widely acknowledged in literature, the effect of volunteer initiatives on the state defense capacity in longer term has not been studied thus far.

    Substituting for the State: The Role of Volunteers in Defense Reform in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine · 2017 · DOI

  • · Despite a significant influx of charitable dollars over the last 10 to 20 years, solutions to complex social problems remain elusive, while philanthropy has been facing growing pressure to account for its tax-free dollars; to demonstrate, replicate, and scale success; and to be transparent about failed social investments.

    Lessons (Not Yet) Learned · 2011 · DOI

  • Although existing research focuses on the link between employee’s PSM and general volunteering, little is known about how workers’ volunteering activities differ across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

    Behavioral Implications of Public Service Motivation · 2011 · DOI

  • This article reports on a 2006 survey of citizen participation in appointed public volunteer boards, a widely used but rarely studied mechanism for citizen involvement in local government administration.

    Appointed Public Volunteer Boards · 2010 · DOI

  • In the last two decades knowledge on volunteering has significantly expanded, but a thorough understanding of the organizational socialization of volunteers is still lacking: the process through which one learns the job, internalizes organizational values and goals, and becomes an effective and involved volunteer.

    The volunteer stages and transitions model: Organizational socialization of volunteers · 2008 · DOI

  • Although certain relationships, such as the participation-performance association, have been adequately addressed in the literature, other aspects of the participation process have received very limited research attention, We propose that research move away from a narrow focus on certain aspects of the participation process and move toward a more inclusive agenda.

    Participation in Organizations: A Preview of the Issues and Proposed Framework for Future Analysis · 1995 · DOI

  • According to the literature, most researchers assume that motivation to volunteer (MMV) is a two-or three-dimensional phenomenon, but very few studies have carried out an empirical analysis of the internal dimensionality of MTV.

    Measuring Motivation to Volunteer in Human Services · 1991 · DOI

  • A fruitful area for further research on voluntary associations would be to relate the degree of status differences in the membership of voluntary associations to the attendance and involvement of the lower status members. Analysis of the issues which arise in different SES neighborhoods suggests further research on the reason for participation by SES.

    Neighborhood Status and Membership in Locality Based Instrumental Associations · 1973 · DOI

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120 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,412 Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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