Reaching Out Network building by US non-profit welfare organizations
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Abstract
Contemporary non-profit organizations operate in a fast changing and challenging environment. While the challenges at the sector level have been well documented, there is a gap in the literature in examining this issue at the local level. Based on interviews with non-profit executives, and using grounded theory methodology, this paper proposes that non-profits are using a reaching out strategy to deal with their most commonly experienced challenges of overwhelming complexity, distancing, and fragmentation. Reaching out involves different forms and levels of inter-organizational networking. These forms may be characterized as differentiation, symbiotic relations, and advocacy networks.
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