Marta Rey-Garcia

This paper examines how adopting UN 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as strategic objectives shapes foundations’ strategic practices, i.e. the ways they frame and try to contribute to sustainability challenges, design and implement interventions, and evaluate and account for their impacts vis-à-vis relevant stakeholders. Albeit an increasing number of foundations report alignment with the SDG framework, more evidence of its strategic implications is needed. Towards that end, a comprehensive review of academic and grey literature (2015–2024) is combined with a multiple case study. Innovative strategic practices towards SDGs by Canadian foundations are identified based on extreme case sampling. Data are collected from multiple sources, including 11 in-depth interviews with experts, representatives and top managers from 3 national networks and 4 foundations. Findings suggest that the more socially innovative practices have the potential to impact both the organizational and interorganizational levels, and ultimately public policy. Practices that are typical of strategic philanthropy with a social innovation and policy orientation are delved into, and the importance of framing as a strategic practice is emphasized. They span not only the value proposition, logic model and accountability of foundations, but also interorganizational practices (e.g. convening, collaboration, scaling up, in or out, or advocacy) that are typical of multistakeholder emergent or ecosystem strategies in the face of complexity. Findings from the perspective of foundation networks shed light on isomorphic interorganizational diffusion of strategic practices and frame alignment processes. Finally, implications for foundation policy are explored, unveiling the utility of SDG-oriented framings of sustainability challenges for foundations to influence the broader system where they operate by removing strategic constraints. Our contribution to the philanthropic literature is a broader and more nuanced vision of strategic philanthropy practices in the face of complex, systemic challenges, where traditional funding roles (e.g. supplementation) are substituted by innovative roles that better align foundations’ practices with their self-perceived functions and external role expectations, reinforcing their legitimacy in the public arena.

Research on evidence-based volunteer management, especially regarding episodic volunteering, is limited. Thus, we examine the influence of individual traits of event volunteers and the management practices employed by non-profit organisations on their likelihood to engage in future events. First, we revisit the value of episodic volunteering within the framework of regenerative volunteer management. We then compare factors affecting the inclination of event volunteers to re-volunteer for the same or for a different organisation based on a path analysis of 10,148 survey responses from event volunteers in 19 countries. Previous episodic volunteer experience, responsiveness, appreciation from supervisors and satisfaction with the event experience increase the probability that event volunteers will re-volunteer for both the same and different organisations. Moreover, assistance, service quality and comfort contribute indirectly by enhancing satisfaction with the volunteer experience. Effective management of event volunteering replenishes a valuable volunteer resource for both event organisers and other non-profit organisations.

Traceability and transparency are essential for sustainability in complex global supply chains (SCs), but they remain elusive goals in practice. Scholars and practitioners consistently advocate collaboration amongst SC stakeholders as a means of enhancing them, yet little is known regarding their interrelation and contribution to sustainability. We adopt the SC practice‐based view (SCPV) to propose and test an explanatory model elucidating how to deploy collaboration, traceability and transparency to achieve triple bottom line (TBL) performance within global SCs. Focusing on the paramount example of complex fashion‐apparel SCs, we analyse the insights gained from 139 suppliers—typically ignored in favour of focal firms—using Partial Least Squares Structural Equations Modelling. Our results provide a concrete battery of not‐necessarily complex or inimitable activities empirically proven to help put traceability and transparency into practice to achieve TBL performance. The SCPV approach contends that everyday practices, activities and relationships amongst SC stakeholders underpin TBL performance.

The purpose of this research consists of identifying the antecedents that may influence the adoption of omnichannel behavior by volunteers. This behavior can be understood as the interchangeable use of online and offline channels, providing volunteers with multiple contact points with nonprofit organizations. To this end, we first propose a conceptual model based on Clary et al.'s motivations framework and other relevant literature. Second, we test our model through quantitative‐based research, employing an online questionnaire with a representative sample of 7822 volunteers working for the Spanish Red Cross. We then carry out a hierarchical cluster analysis to group similar volunteers into clusters according to the use they make of the different offline and online channels, followed by an ordered logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses proposed. First, two volunteer profiles are identified: offline‐oriented volunteers with low or no omnichannel behavior, and online‐oriented volunteers with high or very high omnichannel behavior. Second, our results suggest that some types of motivations among volunteers (understanding the nonprofit, career or employment opportunities, the advice of family, friends, and acquaintances, and protective reasons), as well as the sense of belonging, perceived usefulness of new technologies, social influence and having feedback channels, all positively influence the adoption of omnichannel behavior by volunteers. Additionally, our findings reveal different effects for the two clusters identified. Finally, and using a contingency approach, implications for nonprofit–volunteer relationship management are drawn.

Although episodic volunteering is a popular form of volunteering and has received increasing attention from researchers, the motives and characteristics of episodic volunteers in different industries or types of events remain underresearched, especially in the context of cultural events. This study is based on a sample of more than 2000 episodic volunteers and analyzes demographic characteristics, motives, and volunteer experience of cultural event volunteers by applying between and within analysis. The between analysis compares cultural and social event volunteers and finds that cultural event volunteers show higher time engagement but are more self-serving in their motives. The within analysis emphasizes intrinsic motives over extrinsic motives, leading to the conclusion that saturation of extrinsic motives reduces willingness for future engagements.

This research explores the extent to which campaign factors may influence the success of donation-based crowdfunding (DCF) promoted online with social purposes. Factors that may explain the success of online fundraising campaigns for social causes are firstly identified from previous literature and linked to DCF campaigns through a set of hypotheses: disclosure, imagery, updating, and spreadability. Following, their explanatory capacity is measured through quantitative analysis (logistic regression) based on 360 all-or-nothing campaigns fostered by nonprofits through an online platform. Results confirm the high explanatory capacity of determinants related to the updating and spreadability of the campaign. However, factors related to the disclosure and imagery do not influence their success. This research suggests that the success of online campaigns is closely related to share and update transparent information of those details that contributors deem relevant. Implications are drawn for the effective technical design and management of DCF campaigns channeled through digital media, and specifically for the engagement with potential online communities of funders in digital platforms.

The hybrid nature of social enterprises gives them a high potential for developing social innovations, but at the same time leads to tensions within these organizations. The barriers they face to gain access to traditional sources of funding are pushing social enterprises to reinforce their business models and rely more on commercial activities, and this fact increases the risk of mission drift and can weaken accountability towards beneficiaries of the social mission in favor of dominant stakeholders such as funders or clients of the commercial activities. Our research attempts to analyze whether partnerships between social enterprises and nonprofits strengthen accountability to beneficiaries without hindering accountability to other stakeholders, thus allowing both social and economic objectives to operate together. Based on a survey with a sample of social enterprises partnering with nonprofits, results reveal that as the partnership moves along a collaboration continuum to a transformational stage, accountability to beneficiaries is encouraged, whereas accountability to other types of stakeholders is also improved or, at least, not affected.

Purpose: The relationship between sustainability, traceability and transparency in the fashion-apparel industry, characterised by complex, labour-intensive and geographically dispersed supply chains (SCs), needs further clarification. The first goal of this study is to revise, refine and adapt to the scope of this industry, the conceptualisation of traceability and transparency and their interrelations with sustainability. The second goal is to uncover the key elements responsible for fostering and hindering their relationship in the fashion-apparel practice.Design/methodology/approach: A Delphi study with fourteen experts representing key stakeholders in the entire fashion-apparel SC was carried out.Findings: Operational definitions for and clear boundaries amongst sustainability, traceability and transparency are identified, and a relational model including stakeholder groups and roles, drivers and barriers is developed. Traceability, defined as an ability, together with transparency, conceptualised as an internal decision and assisted (inter alia) by cross-sector collaboration are found to be necessary but not sufficient conditions to achieve SC sustainability, which is conceived as an outcome.Originality/value: The work adapts concepts from the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature to the particular fashion-apparel context, incorporating the practical vision and nuances of all the key stakeholder groups and highlighting the mutually reinforcing relationship among traceability, transparency and cross-sector collaboration for effective SSCM in the fashion-apparel industry.