This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2018 by Stuart C. Mendel and Jeffrey L. Brudney
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mendel, Stuart C., author. | Brudney, Jeffrey L., author.
Title: Partnerships the nonprofit way : what matters, what doesnt / Stuart C. Mendel and Jeffrey L. Brudney.
Description: Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, [2018] | Series: Philanthropic and nonprofit studies | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017029272 | ISBN 9780253025654 (cl : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Nonprofit organizationsManagement. | Partnership.
Classification: LCC HD62.6 .M46 2018 | DDC 658/.048dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029272
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Acknowledgments
W HEN WE STARTED this project in the early 2010s, we held the view that the scholarship on partnership involving nonprofit organizations was extensive. Many research articles, monographs, and edited volumes existed. It seemed that any addition to the discourse would require an innovative approach to the material on partnership that spoke to and for nonprofit actors and would have to utilize as large a sampling of organizations as we might reasonably manage within the limits of time and funding available to us.
We then waded into the intellectual thicket of partnership, collaboration, and cross-sector interactions. We observed that much of the scholarly inquiry appeared as derivative theorytheory drawn from theorygrounded by small sample sizes of case studies illustrating the theoretical principles. We quickly determined that any innovation of partnership research would draw upon our experiences in providing advice, mentorship, and shared learning with nonprofit executives and board leaders gleaned through funded and volunteer engagements with the local community.
The inspiration for the bookand the subsequent design of the research, data collection methods, findings, analysis, narrative structure, and conclusionswere all driven by the questions and challenges posed to us by nonprofit executives seeking answers to real problems in the practice of nonprofit management, leadership, and governance. Our effort to answer these questions shaped four contributions this book makes to the field, which we describe in the Introduction and in the topics and structure of the following book chapters. The payoff for these stakeholders from our work can be found throughout this volume, but particularly in the nonprofit partnership principles and theory described in final chapter of this book.
A second important driver for the innovation of partnership research was the institutional imprimatur of Cleveland State Universitynot to mention funding to support the field researchgranted by the dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at the time, Edward (Ned) W. Hill. We gratefully acknowledge Dean Hills encouragement to follow our curiosity and desire to turn the community engagement, education, and applied research work we perform and for which our institution is well known into thought leadership for the field of nonprofit sector studies.
Among our closest collaborators in performing the labors of this book are the truly outstanding graduate assistants who performed the heavy labor and seamlessly handed off the work of project support over four academic seasons. These determined and able graduate assistants included Erin (Carek) Vokes, Julie Quinn, Anna K. Jones, Heather Lenz, Cynthia (Biro) Connolly, and Rachael Balanson. We also thank Allison M. Campbell for her good work and contributions to this book project in researching various side themes and in helping to produce charts and graphs, and in the follow up, to thank many of the named and unnamed contributors to the work.
Much appreciation to Alyse (Lapish) Neville, Stephanie Allen, Emily Hoban, Courtney Matthews, Michael R. Elliott Jr., and Amy Hatem and other students of our graduate courses UST 550 Fundamentals of Nonprofit Administration & Leadership and UST 656 Advanced Topics in Nonprofit Management Practice from 2012 to 2014, who conducted interviews, verified data, and served to comment on many of the ideas and conclusions of the authors.
We acknowledge Dr. Jung Eun Kim, who at the time was completing her doctorate from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, for the early developmental research design work; and Dr. Jennifer R. Madden, assistant professor of management and marketing, Carthage College, for her work advising us in data coding design and for confirmation of our trend analysis in her field of expertise.
We also acknowledge staff of the Levin College and Cleveland State University who aided various aspects of this book and with field interviews. Many thanks to Kathyrn Hexter, Rachel Singer, Molly Schnoke, Melanie (Furey) Baur, Matt Starkey, and Jane McCrone.
A challenge in drafting our acknowledgments involves the nonprofit executives and leaders who contributed their time and cases to our endeavor. A condition of our data gathering to ensure confidentiality was that we would not attribute quotes to named individuals or identify participants in any way. This promise was made to encourage nonprofit executives to offer their most candid views while limiting the potential for pushback from their partners or third-party stakeholders.
Despite the promise and opportunity for anonymity, we did gain permission to acknowledge many of those among the study participants who explicitly responded to our post-survey request to be recognized in this book. Our thanks and appreciation to William Beckenbach, Daniel Blain, Lisa Bottoms, Patricia Groble, PhD, Merle Gordon, Alan D. Gross, Sarah Hackenbracht, Bernard P. Henri, PhD, Stephanie Hiedemann, Deborah Hoover, Bob Jaquay, Linda Johanek, Greg Johnson, Major Lurlene Johnson, Kathryn Kazol, Bernadette M. Kerrigan, LISW, SPHR, Ray Leach, Bill Leamon, Joseph A. Marinucci, Mark McDermott, Rev. Dr. Brian Moore, Stephanie Morrison-Hrbek, Molly Neider, Patricia W. Nobili, MSSA, Stacey OBrien, Bobbi Reichtell, Carol Rivchun, Jill Rizika, Myron Robinson, Chris Ronayne, Natalie Ronayne, Jared Schnall, Thomas B. Schorgl, Sandra R. Schwartz, Charles See, Judy Simpson, Ken Slenkovich, Ron Soeder, Tony Thomas, LISW-S, ACSW, John Visnauskas, Lorry Wagner, PhD, Kristin Warzocha, Eva Weisman, Steve Wertheim, Brad Whitehead, Elaine Woloshyn, Deb Yandala, and Denise Zeman.
