A Study of Factors Influencing the Growth of Nonprofits in Social Services

Abstract

This exploratory study identifies and assesses the significance of factors that contribute to the growth of the nonprofit sector in the field of social services across 285 major metropolitan areas in the United States. Measures derived from social cohesion, demand heterogeneity, market failure, resource dependence, and philanthropic culture theories are introduced to correlation and multiple regression analyses. All but the philanthropic culture measures are positively associated with the growth of the nonprofit sector in social services. Particularly noteworthy are the positive influences that religious cohesion and interdenominational diversity have on numbers of nonprofit social service providers—a finding that reaffirms the historical linkage between religion and voluntary associations. Summary U.S. economic and sociodemographic census data, as well as data from a unique religious census, are analyzed. If a unifying theory of the nonprofit sector is attainable, studies such as this should contribute to laying the empirical building blocks for such a theory.