Femida Handy

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Pennsylvania

Refugee and immigrant nonprofit organizations rely on their volunteers to carry out services that are critical for supporting their mission. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the types of volunteers who support refugee and immigrant nonprofits. We report findings from two independent, but complementary studies. Study 1 examined the indivi...

Refugee and immigrant nonprofit organizations rely on their volunteers to carry out services that are critical for supporting their mission. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the types of volunteers who support refugee and immigrant nonprofits. We report findings from two independent, but complementary studies. Study 1 examined the indivi...

To understand the intergenerational transmission of pro-environmental behaviors within a family, we employ a nationally representative survey of young adults and their parents living within the United States. We analyze intergenerational transmission for three generations with information on children, parent, and grandparent behavior. Our findings...

Human service organizations in the US are heavily dependent on volunteers and donations. The COVID-19 pandemic compromised the ability of volunteer coordinators and fundraisers to obtain and retain such vital resources. This article details the experiences of those entrusted with the acquisition and retention of time and money for human service org...

The individual-level benefits of the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) in India are well-documented. However, the impact on the formal labor market of establishing, facilitating, and managing SHG-BLPs remains understudied. We address this gap by documenting employment created through SHG-BLPs in Karnataka, India. Data collected from...

What motivates volunteers to sign up for the Olympic games? To involve volunteers cost-effectively, it is reasonable to understand why individuals choose to volunteer.

In this paper, we examine how young adults who are consumers of K-Pop in three culturally diverse cities (Paris, Philadel-phia, and Manchester) reshape their symbolic boundaries to face social challenges. Analyzing data from 132 interviews, we show how young adults mainly confront social exclusion in Paris, fight racism in Philadelphia and deal wit...

The extant literature on volunteering has focused primarily on the many benefits of volunteering for older adults. However, the question rarely investigated is whether these benefits dissipate when older adults retire from their volunteering. Given the U.S. policy context wherein volunteering is promoted as a solution to the problems of aging, this...

It is widely recognized that nonprofit organizations provide benefits to society such as goods and services that promote social well-being, activities fostering social inclusion and cohesion, and community spaces and opportunities for minority interests. To understand these particular civic benefits and the contributions of nonprofit organizations...

The governments of the advanced industrial democracies have long provided public policies that redistribute income, and public support for such redistribution has varied across countries and over time. “Who is likely to support these egalitarian policies?” is a perennial question. This article investigates individuals’ participation in voluntary se...

Objective Scholars have presented compelling evidence that participation in voluntary sector organizations (VSOs)—which is primarily motivated by the desire to help society—also benefits volunteers. The objective of this article is to determine whether and how these positive impacts vary across the type of VSO where individuals volunteer. Methods...

A large body of evidence has demonstrated a connection between volunteering and improved well-being, especially among older adults, without fully considering the implications of transitioning out of volunteering. While volunteers represent an important resource for many organizations, working with older adult volunteers also presents a unique set o...

The Generosity Commission, a project of the Giving Institute and Giving USA Foundation, provided the necessary funding to look at COVID-19's impact on generous behaviors within the United States.

This study investigates the association between the integration of first-generation immigrants and their volunteering. Using data from a Canadian national survey, we examine three dimensions of immigrant integration: professional, psychosocial and political. General volunteering is not significantly related to integration; however, there exists a r...

Charitable nonprofits are engaging at increasing rates in market-based activities. This study examined Canadian public perception of nonprofits’ market-based activities. Latent variables for trust, financial accountability, transparency, direct and general familiarity, understanding of nonprofit roles in service delivery and advocacy, and orientati...

This paper investigates the underlying motivations for environmental behaviors among two generations of South Koreans: parents (ages 42–61) and their children (ages 18–28). While previous research has documented intergenerational transmission (IGT) of environmental attitudes and behaviors, what is not known is whether individuals exhibit similar mo...

We explore how funding decisions are made when giving grants to human services organizations that include mental and physical health. Community engagement in the decision-making processes is expected to yield many benefits, including a deeper understanding of community problems, a better sense of grantee needs and challenges, and greater effectiven...

We explore how funding decisions are made when giving grants to human services organizations that include mental and physical health. Community engagement in the decision-making processes is expected to yield many benefits, including a deeper understanding of community problems, a better sense of grantee needs and challenges, and greater effectiven...

In this paper, we examine whether and how the institutional context matters when understanding individuals’ giving to philanthropic organizations. We posit that both the individuals’ propensity to give and the amounts given are higher in countries with a stronger institutional context for philanthropy. We examine key factors of formal and informal...

We seek to understand how environmentalism is experienced, discussed and transmitted by South Korean families in the context of changing economic and environmental circumstances. Qualitative interviews with three-generation Korean families are used, in a country characterised in the past fifty years by rapid economic changes alongside continuation...

Although the literature on volunteering and wellbeing among older adults is extensive, it tends to focus on this relationship within spaces of formal volunteering, such as non-profit organisations. However, informal volunteering and other forms of civic engagement may also promote improved wellbeing outcomes for this age group; likewise, these beha...

Evidence exists that beautiful is seen as good: the halo effect wherein more physically attractive people are perceived to be good, and the reverse halo that good is seen as beautiful. Yet research has rarely examined the evidence linking the beautiful with the good, or the reverse, without the halo effect. We examine the relationship between physi...

With an increasing need for social innovations that rely on cross-sector partnerships, traditional ways of managing and leading human service nonprofits are undergoing rapid changes. Utilizing a qualitative, grounded theory approach, with data collected from a sample of nonprofit leaders of human service organizations in Pennsylvania, USA (n = 31),...

University‐based fundraisers have career paths that are unique in that most do not come to their careers through traditional training programs that are available to other professions, which may impact their expectations of and experiences in their work. Using the conceptual framework of person‐in‐environment fit, this study uses qualitative data fr...

Public trust of nonprofits can augment social benefits of the nonprofit sector by enhancing engagement of the general population in the sector. This study analyzed cross sectional data collected from a random sample of Canadians (n = 3853) to test the effects of respondents’ perceptions of financial accountability, transparency, and familiarity of...

This paper focuses on intergenerational transmission of environmental behavior, i.e., the processes by which environmental behavior is negotiated and shaped within the family. We offer an analysis of two correlates of child environmental behavior: parental environmental behaviors (as intergenerational transmission) and socialization domains (parent...

A large body of quantitative evidence demonstrates a link between volunteering and improved well-being, especially among older adults. Yet the research evidence pointing to the purported benefits of volunteering does not adequately address the unique experiences of older volunteers, nor does it address the ways in which working with them impacts th...

Food insecurity manifests itself on a continuum, and we note that it can range from absolute food insecurity to relative food insecurity, especially in the context of affluent countries. We focus on one such relative food insecurity that manifests itself when Dutch children cannot afford the culturally appropriate foods to participate birthday cele...

Social innovation is a distinct type of innovation that refers to the efforts of individuals and organizations that help to create opportunities that have a broader impact on a social system and/or the experiences of a vulnerable social group as a whole. This research identifies the intraorganizational conditions that support or hinder efforts by h...

This article adds to the literature on the consequences of cultural capital at the age of cultural globalization by analyzing the ways youth engage in globalized cultural consumption in three cities – Paris, São Paulo, and Seoul. Drawing on cosmopolitanism as an aesthetic and cultural stance of openness and on global cultural consumption as providi...

Purpose Every year volunteers play a crucial role in disaster responses around the world. Volunteer management is known to be more complex than managing a paid workforce, and this is only made worse by the uncertainty of rapidly changing conditions of crisis scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to address the critical problem of assigning tasks...

Previous scholarship has shown evidence of a positive relationship between volunteering and improved measures of mental and physical wellbeing. It has also been suggested that volunteering may help individuals navigate transitions between different life stages by encouraging them to become more involved in their communities, thereby building new so...

Previous research that has tried to identify the personal values that best explain variance in pro-environmental attitudes tended to focus on biospheric and universalism values. This paper examines the importance of self-direction as a value underlying young people's inclination to adopt pro-environmental behaviors and environmental activism. We ex...

Change recipients are not just negative and passive, but positive and active shapers of organizational change; we draw on job crafting to reflect positive and proactive behaviors individuals display in their changing work environment. Drawing on job crafting and organizational change theory, this study proposes a conceptual framework that links cha...

A nonprofit charter school focused on providing healthy, affordable meals to its students must decide between competing interests when a local food company offers to make a significant donation in exchange for the opportunity to install unhealthy vending machines on school grounds. School employees clash over the right solution to their financial d...

An executive director must make a difficult decision about personnel management that may necessitate the disclosure of sensitive employee information. This case pushes readers to determine whether it is appropriate or ethical to share closed HR documents, when on the one hand, to not disclose means protecting an employee’s reputation and career, bu...

An executive director running a US-based nonprofit must decide how to address an ethical breach that occurred in India, where the organization does its fieldwork. This case introduces ethical dilemmas that arise when nonprofits operate in multiple sites around the world, and when executive leadership is unable to directly oversee the fieldwork of t...

So far, we have talked about recent nonprofit scandals and considered why ethics should be an important part of decision-making in the nonprofit sector. You may be convinced that ethics belongs in every profession and especially even in a sector that relies so much on the trust of the public and its stakeholders. But given the complexities of nonpr...

Now that we have discussed several different ethical frameworks, the question arises: How do we integrate these theories into practice? The thinkers’ ideas may seem very abstract, or perhaps like “ideal” cases for living when, in actuality, real life is much messier and more complex. For example, most of our students point out that it is all well a...

The vice principal of a nonprofit school in India must decide whether to compel her teaching staff to change their approach to conform to the expectations of international funders. This case deals with questions of how to reconcile cultural differences between NGO staff, who carry out the day-to-day work of the organization, and international funde...

When data collection for a research study undertaken at a nonprofit think tank goes awry, a senior researcher must decide whether to come clean about misreported results and risk losing valuable grant funding. In this case, Handy and Russell introduce ethical dilemmas that arise when workers at different levels of an organization—part-time, volunte...

The President of a nonprofit that supports research for rare diseases faces the following funding dilemmas: contested bequests, board member pressures around funding decisions, collaboration with both nonprofit and government partners, and restricted versus unrestricted donations. This case highlights the many different paths that nonprofit leaders...

Set in a nonprofit university, this case example asks the question, “Should a nonprofit take a donor’s money if it was made through questionable means?” Through this case, Handy and Russell push readers to tackle the age-old question of whether charities can clean dirty money, or whether they should avoid donations of money made through potentially...

In this chapter, the authors also introduce a case study to demonstrate one way the road map can be applied to aid decision-making in the face of ethical dilemmas. The case introduces the issue of donor intent and asks whether or not it is appropriate to acquiesce to donor demands, even if it means compromising organizational policies. Handy and Ru...

Why the nonprofit sector over the private or public sectors? Nonprofit organizations differ from both for-profit and public-sector organizations in several ways. Whether you can articulate these differences easily from reading textbooks and research articles, or whether you have learned them implicitly through your own work as a nonprofit practitio...

The chief development officer of a private, religiously affiliated liberal arts college must balance the demands of potential donors and zealous board members in this case, which deals with how to prioritize competing interests of different stakeholders. Handy and Russell directly address the fundamental nature of nonprofit organizations—multiple s...

On the eve of the biggest volunteering day of the year, an over-stretched volunteer administrator must balance the sudden demands of a high-profile community sponsor with the established organizational norms and policies she worked hard to develop. In this case, Handy and Russell focus on the difficulties of balancing multiple stakeholders against...

The employee of a nonprofit community hospital is put in a tough spot when her personal connections get in the way of her professional ethics. This case deals with the ethical dilemma that arises when individuals must determine whether to disclose privileged or private information to protect the organization’s integrity, even if it means compromisi...

The CEO of a local community foundation seeks to reconcile her personal views with a new funding initiative in the community. This case asks readers to consider the extent to which personal views should impact professional decisions and how to navigate the difficulties that arise when nonprofit employees must balance the dual roles of advocate and...

What is ethics? Ethics is a discipline that deals with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation. It encompasses the principles and rules governing the standards of conduct of an individual or group, such as a community or a profession. Sometimes referred to as moral philosophy, it is the study of the general nature of morals and of t...

This book outlines the various elements involved in ethical decision-making for nonprofit leaders, and whose rights to prioritize when facing complex situations. Nonprofit board members and employees are often placed in difficult situations, with no single stakeholder and an allegiance to mission statements whose outcomes can be difficult to measur...

Volunteering is an under-studied yet potentially beneficial avenue for immigrant integration. Whereas past research has provided important insights into the benefits of immigrant volunteering, it has been frequently based on convenience samples. This paper contributes to the literature on immigrant volunteering on two levels. First, we test less ex...

By 2060, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is expected to more than double, while the number of Americans aged 85 and older is expected to nearly triple. As the nation's aging population grows, older adults will need to rely on social support services, such as transportation and housing services, in order to remain active and lead independe...

Do government expenditures shift private philanthropic donations to particular fields of welfare? We examine this association in the first cross-country study to correlate government expenditures with the level of individual private donations to different fields of welfare using the Individual International Philanthropy Database (IIPD, 2016; Ncount...

In this article, we develop and validate a comprehensive self-report scale of why people make charitable donations, relying on a theoretical model of private versus public benefits to donors. In Study 1, we administered an initial pool of 54 items to a general adult sample online. An exploratory factor analysis supported six final factors in the Mo...

Using the social-psychological literature on the antecedents of environmental behaviour and comparative data from Germany, India, Israel and South Korea, we test four value types that correspond with environmental behaviour. Our cross-national context represents varying social, economic, cultural and environmental configurations, giving credence to...

While the literature is replete with studies that identify factors explaining why people are likely to make monetary contributions, less is known about which particular charitable causes they are likely to choose and how much they donate to them. This article examines donor choice among eight different causes using survey data collected in 2011 for...

This research investigated key aspects of cross-sector partnerships that support the socially innovative efforts of direct social service nonprofit organizations (DSSNs). Utilizing qualitative research methods, executive directors of DSSNs in Alberta, Canada were interviewed. Findings highlight four general analytic categories for cross-sector part...

Using data from the 2008 General Social Survey of Canada, this study examines the factors associated with individuals’ propensity to engage in formal and informal volunteering. The results show that social networks increase the likelihood of both formal and informal volunteering, but social trust and human capital increase only the likelihood of fo...

Direct-service nonprofits have taken on increasing responsibility in creating social change (operationalized through the concept of social innovation) within local communities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with executive directors to determine the factors within the intra-organizational environment that support an orientation toward social...

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy is a comprehensive reference guide to the practice of philanthropy across twenty-six nations and regions. In addition, thematic chapters examine cross-national issues to provide an indispensable guide to the latest research in this field. Drawing on theoretical insights from sociology, economics, politic...

Most other chapters in this Handbook focus on volunteering in associations, but this chapter focuses instead mainly on volunteering in volunteer service programs (VSPs). As discussed at length in Handbook Chapter 15, VSPs are essentially volunteer departments of other, larger, controlling, parent organizations, such as nonprofit agencies or governm...

Literature describing the social change efforts of direct social service nonprofits focuses primarily on their political advocacy role or the ways in which practitioners in organizations address individual service user needs. To elicit a more in-depth understanding of the varying ways that these nonprofits promote social change, this research build...

This article uses a social return on investment (SROI) methodology to analyze the social impact of a social enterprise offering a job and skills training program to an unemployed, largely female population. The social enterprise is based in Toronto (Canada) and run by a nonprofit agency dedicated to the advancement and empowerment of women, primari...

Measuring social impact of social enterprises has become a ‘search for the holy grail’. This paper offers an underexplored perspective of social impact assessment by integrating clients’ evaluation of the impact of the program. Drawing on the literature of ‘met expectations’, we investigate the personal and social impact, beyond job placement, of j...

There is a growing public discourse that volunteering increases the likelihood of finding a better job because it improves social and human capital. While previous studies have largely treated volunteers' motivations as individualistically determined, contextual determinants of volunteers' motivations are relatively neglected. The purpose of this s...

Direct social service nonprofit organizations have taken on increasing responsibility in initiatives seeking to create social change for their service user populations and within the community. This research utilized a mixed methods study design to investigate the characteristics of the inter-organizational context that are particularly supportive...

Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the purpose of this study is twofold. First, the study identifies coping strategies used by older adults. Second, the study examines the impact of older adults’ chosen coping strategies on mortality reduction. The study focuses specifically on differences in the use of religious and secular coping s...

There is a growing public discourse that volunteering increases the likelihood of finding a better job because it improves social and human capital. While previous studies have largely treated volunteers’ motivations as individualistically determined, contextual determinants of volunteers’ motivations are relatively neglected. The purpose of this s...

Although motivation to volunteer (MTV) is one of the most frequently researched topics in the field of volunteering research, few studies have compared and explained MTV cross-nationally. Using data from the 1990 World Values Surveys, this study examines if and how specific societal characteristics are asso-ciated with self-reported motivations to...

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Philanthropy provides a broad and in-depth view into philanthropy across a large range of countries, mostly situated in Northern America, Europe and Asia. The authors of this volume describe in detail how philanthropy is organized in the countries under study and explain which factors unique for their country facilit...

In this chapter, we will provide a theoretical overview to answer the question of why some people in some countries donate more often and higher amounts to nonprofit organizations than others. There are two types of answers to this question. First of all, aggregated individual-level differences between people can account for cross-national differen...

In discourse about the relationship between government support to the nonprofit sector and private philanthropy, some scholars would endorse Nobel laureate Milton Friedman’s hypothesis in his Capitalism and Freedom that a country’s welfare system can ‘poison the springs of private charitable activity’ (Friedman, 1980, as cited in Pan, 2010) with th...

This research compares environmental volunteering among students in South Korea and the US (n=3,612). Given differing environmental histories of these countries, we explore whether and to what extent volunteer proclivity and intensity varies, and potential factors that explain existing variation. Findings suggest that American students are more lik...

This case study provides an overview of an innovative approach undertaken by the non-profit organization, GiveIndia, which acts as an intermediary organization linking donors with non-profit organizations and their service recipients through a web-based donation platform. Since that process has been going on for years, GiveIndia is innovative in th...

This study builds upon earlier studies of the degree of interchangeability between volunteers and paid staff in nonprofit organizations. While these earlier studies were from an organization perspective, this study is from the perspective of volunteers, and looks at individual and organizational characteristics in all types of organizations—nonprof...

This study examines the growth of the academic study of the formal nonprofit sector by focusing on dissertations and theses written between 1986 through 2010. Using a keyword search, we find and examine 3,790 abstracts available in the ProQuest Dissertation and Theses database. There has been a growing number of theses and dissertations since 1986;...

This paper compares and contrasts environmental philanthropy, environmental behavior, and their determinants among university students in five countries: Canada, Germany, Israel, South Korea, and the United States. The paper’s unique contribution to the nonprofit literature is its focus on environmental philanthropy as an unexplored form of philant...

This article explores whether an individual's information costs influence the information-gathering strategies that he or she turns to prior to donating to a nonprofit. The data for the study come from a telephone survey of residents in a large county in southern California (n = 1,002). The sample was selected using random-digit-dialing technology...

The literature suggests that nonprofit organizations provide civic benefits by promoting engagement within local communities. However, there exists minimal empirical evidence describing the ways in which nonprofits actually undertake this role. In order to address this omission, we conducted interviews with personnel of nonprofit organizations in o...