Caught Between Volunteerism and Professionalism: Support by Nonprofit Leaders for the Donative Labor Hypothesis. (June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Mirae; Charbonneau, Étienne
• Is Part Of: Review of public personnel administration. Volume 40:Number 2(2020:Jun.)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 349
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Subjects: donative labor -- volunteerism -- professionalism -- list experiment -- behavioral public administration; Civil service -- United States -- Personnel management -- Periodicals; Civil service -- United States -- States -- Personnel management -- Periodicals; 352.6
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18816139
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0734-371X

Abstract

The rise of professionalism within the nonprofit sector has transformed the sector's reliance on well-meaning volunteers to paid professionals. While the professionalization of the nonprofit workforce is likely to continue, nonprofits are increasingly challenged for their inability to pay competitive wages. Our study argues that a social expectation for nonprofit employees to forgo some of their wages influences the donative labor narrative, which in turn impacts low nonprofit wages. We present data from an online survey experiment of executive directors at 467 nonprofits, along with their organizations' Form 990 filings, to contrast socially biased attitudes and genuine views toward the donative labor hypothesis. The findings illustrate that the donative labor narrative should be understood as a result of social expectations for sacrifice of nonprofit employees, rather than a simple outcome of supply and demand in the labor market. We discuss the need to reframe the widespread donative labor narrative.