“Marketization and its impact on the Third Sector is attracting renewed research interest as welfare budgets are cut and the role of nonprofits is called into question in difficult fiscal times.” This focus of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) conference in Stockholm in June 2016 with the timely title”The Third Sector in Transition: Accountability, Transparency, and Social Inclusion” reflects the actuality of the TSI project. Naturally, TSI researchers organised two topical panels that zoom in on

1. the challenges the third sector is up against as well as the coping strategies that entities adopt;
2. the conceptualisation of the third sector that came out of the TSI project, which has the potential to not only advance comparative third sector research, but also to work towards better measurement of the sector by statistical agencies, to demonstrate its scope and, to some extent, its impact;
3. common problems in previous research on third sector impacts on individual, community and organizational level and innovative methodological solutions to minimize these problems

TSI welcomes the opportunity to discuss research with the more than 700 international scholars that registered for this important event.

Details of the two panels

1. Reconceptualizing the Third Sector: Towards a New Consensus (chaired by Lester M. Salamon)

In many European countries, nonprofits are looking back upon a long and successful tradition of nonprofit-government partnerships. However, this might soon be a story of the past. Increasingly nonprofits are confronted with a thoroughly changed environment. The European welfare state is on the retreat. Nonprofits do no longer enjoy a privileged position; instead they are treated on par with commercial providers. Moreover, in many policy fields and in particular in social services, nonprofits have to cope with austerity measures that increasingly hinder the organizations to hold on to their mission. Simultaneously, npos are affected by the mega-trend of individualization. Citizens increasingly prefer short-term commitments instead of serving on boards of nonprofits.

In sum, nonprofit organizations in Europe are confronted with increased competition, a scarcity of resources in terms of funds and personnel, and an attuned neo-liberal societal and political climate. Against his scenario the purpose of the round table is twofold:
– firstly to identify barriers, nonprofits are confronted with in European countries and which impede npos from living up to their societal and political potentials;
– secondly to illustrate how npos address the current environmental challenges by developing new and innovative approaches and hence ways-out of troublesome situations.
The presentations of the panel will draw on the results of the EU-funded project “Third Sector Impact (TSI)” coordinated by the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, which brings together ten European universities and research centers. Presentations will focus on the topic of how nonprofits in Southern, Central and Post-Communist Europe as well as in the U.K. cope with changed environments. The research in TSI is guided by a combination of the “organizational field approach” and policy analysis. Moreover, research teams in the countries under study apply a mixed method approach consisting of literature and document analysis, expert interviews (about 20 per country), focus groups (2 per country), an online survey addressing nonprofit managers and stakeholders (100 cases at least per country) and case study analysis of selected nonprofits (six per country).

The round table discussion will be started by an introduction and four presentations summarizing the current situation of nonprofit organizations in the regions and countries under study. Also each presentation will highlight one example of “best practice” as how to bypass current difficulties. The goal of the round table is to discuss from a comparative perspective results of the empirical analysis conducted under the framework of the TSI-project and furthermore, to highlight innovative approaches as to manage current challenges.

2. Third Sector impact (TSI): The Endangered Sector? – Barriers to the Third Sector and Best Practices for Coping with Environmental Challenges (chaired by Taco Brandsen)

In many European countries, nonprofits are looking back upon a long and successful tradition of nonprofit-government partnerships. However, this might soon be a story of the past. Increasingly nonprofits are confronted with a thoroughly changed environment. The European welfare state is on the retreat. Nonprofits do no longer enjoy a privileged position; instead they are treated on par with commercial providers. Moreover, in many policy fields and in particular in social services, nonprofits have to cope with austerity measures that increasingly hinder the organizations to hold on to their mission. Simultaneously, npos are affected by the mega-trend of individualization. Citizens increasingly prefer short-term commitments instead of serving on boards of nonprofits.

In sum, nonprofit organizations in Europe are confronted with increased competition, a scarcity of resources in terms of funds and personnel, and an attuned neo-liberal societal and political climate. Against his scenario the purpose of the round table is twofold:
– firstly to identify barriers, nonprofits are confronted with in European countries and which impede npos from living up to their societal and political potentials;
– secondly to illustrate how npos address the current environmental challenges by developing new and innovative approaches and hence ways-out of troublesome situations.
The presentations of the panel will draw on the results of the EU-funded project “Third Sector Impact (TSI)” coordinated by the Institute for Social Research in Oslo, which brings together ten European universities and research centers. Presentations will focus on the topic of how nonprofits in Southern, Central and Post-Communist Europe as well as in the U.K. cope with changed environments. The research in TSI is guided by a combination of the “organizational field approach” and policy analysis. Moreover, research teams in the countries under study apply a mixed method approach consisting of literature and document analysis, expert interviews (about 20 per country), focus groups (2 per country), an online survey addressing nonprofit managers and stakeholders (100 cases at least per country) and case study analysis of selected nonprofits (six per country).

The round table discussion will be started by an introduction and four presentations summarizing the current situation of nonprofit organizations in the regions and countries under study. Also each presentation will highlight one example of “best practice” as how to bypass current difficulties. The goal of the round table is to discuss from a comparative perspective results of the empirical analysis conducted under the framework of the TSI-project and furthermore, to highlight innovative approaches as to manage current challenges.

3. Empirical Assessment of Third Sector Impact (chaired by Karl Henrik Sivesind)

The papers in this panel are part of a project called Third Sector Impact, funded by EU’s 7th Framework program. The objective is to create knowledge that will advance the contributions of the Third Sector in Europe. Research on impacts of the third sector on other parts of society is scattered and inconclusive. Research on individual level data is most developed, but it is difficult to identify the effects of volunteering or employment in third sector organizations, because of self-selection. People that choose to be involved may already have characteristics assumed to be possible impacts of the third sector, such as improved health, well-being, and civic engagement.
The two first papers in this panel address these problems of self-selection with propensity scores matching estimators. This results in other findings than what has been common in previous research. The first focuses on effects of volunteering in 23 European countries, and finds positive effects on political engagement, but not on health and well-being in contrast to many previous studies. This suggests that health and wellbeing may be a precondition for volunteering, but that there may be a positive effect on political engagement. The second paper focuses on voluntary work during unemployment, an investigates if volunteering can compensate for the loss in manifest and latent benefits associated with paid work and thus improve unemployed individuals’ wellbeing and mental health in 29 European countries. It is found that this depends on generous welfare benefits.
The third paper focuses on the community level. It is often assumed that the density of third sector organizations provide opportunities that are beneficial for engagement in volunteering, social cohesion, and social capital. By a sophisticated multi-level modelling and after controlling for relevant individual and area characteristics in data from the UK, the paper concludes that the “foot-print” of the third sector organizations do not add to the explanation of community level variations. This indicates that organizational density on community level is a less important infrastructure than assumed in previous research and in several current policy initiatives.
Analysis of impact on the organizational level is often done by single organizations, as a response to requirements by funders to prove the impact of specific projects. The organizations also want to attract donors and support by presenting this kind of documentation. There is therefore a lot of impact analysis going on using established concepts such as Social Return on Investment (SROI). However, there are dimensions particular to the third sector that tend to be ignored because of lacking indicators. This weakness of organizational impact analysis will be addressed in the final paper.
This panel addresses common problems in previous research on third sector impacts on individual, community and organizational level. Innovative methodological solutions are used to minimize these problems, and implications for further analysis and research on Third Sector Impacts are presented.