Log in
Building the Knowledge Base of Nonprofit Management:
A Searchable Database
Balancing Acts: What Charter Schools Teach Us about Government-Nonprofit Contracting
Abstract
When a government agency and a nonprofit organization enter into a contract to provide a public service, each party must perform a delicate balancing act. The nonprofit organization must weigh the benefits of engagement with the public sector against the perils of entanglement. The government agency must afford the nonprofit organization enough autonomy to benefit from its flexibility and creativity, all the while holding the private organization accountable for furthering public purposes. This article develops a typology of technical, organizational, and contextual factors that may affect each party's ability to strike its balance and then uses this typology to analyze the experiences of governments and quasi-nonprofit charter schools in three states: Colorado, Massachusetts, and Michigan.
Journal
(1997)
vol26
no4
pages442-465
Categories
-
Managing External Relations
-
Public-Private Partnerships
