In this study, I explore a 20-plus-year process of how one research-intensive university in the United States integrated entrepreneurship into a university-wide initiative to develop an entrepreneurial culture. This research study focuses on the process of how entrepreneurial culture was developed through the implementation of three social entrepreneurship pitch competitions. I designed and implemented this study using organizational and critical ethnography methodologies. Organizational ethnography is a qualitative research approach that immerses the researcher in the natural context of an organization to understand its social dynamics, cultural practices, and lived experiences. Critical ethnography is an interpretive research methodology that aims to uncover power dynamics, social inequalities, and injustices within organizations by examining the underlying structures that shape individuals' experiences and interactions. I used qualitative research methods to understand the everyday work and activity that shaped the experience of entrepreneurial culture through textual document analysis, observations, and interviews with students, faculty, and staff. My work was guided by the following research question: How do faculty, staff, administration, and students create entrepreneurial culture through the production of social entrepreneurship education at a research-intensive university? Through this analysis, I discuss how pitch competitions serve as a prominent ritual and routine of entrepreneurship education at Startup U, in most cases fostering existing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, a disconnect exists between faculty intentions for developing an entrepreneurial mindset and the organizational structures supporting student learning, with pitch competitions outside the classroom often emphasizing high-tech, high-growth ventures, potentially excluding ideas developed from Startup U's broad operating definition of entrepreneurship. These findings highlight the influence of philanthropic giving on student opportunities within the university's entrepreneurship ecosystem and how 'training unicorns' limits the potential of engaging students in a university-wide initiative. I conclude this study with theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implications section advocates for a deeper exploration of entrepreneurial mindsets beyond traditional business contexts, urging scholars to focus on exploring community development versus community growth. The practical implications section proposes the use of critical reflection to bridge entrepreneurial knowledge and skills with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Social entrepreneurship has evolved into a global trend to promote responsible community development and social equity, including nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid ventures that identify and exploit opportunities to promote social value and community benefit. Social entrepreneurship can be a powerful tool that shifts economic and sustainable development foci from a financial growth paradigm to a community development and community determination paradigm, promoting social justice and resource distribution equity. When considering intercession's potentiality and impact on local communities, an investigation of the role of ethics in the social entrepreneurial profession is essential. It is essential to question the assumption that social can equal ethical and investigate the possibility that the outcome of an enterprise overrides negative impacts on the stakeholders, leading to potential saviorism, colonization, and even corruption in social entrepreneurial efforts. The purpose of this study is to draw on theories of ethics to inform decision-making processes in professional social entrepreneurship. The single-case study seeks to define the ethical considerations of social entrepreneurs and what factors weigh into ventures designed to advance social equity and promote economic equilibrium for marginalized populations. Additionally, it investigates the ethical parameters by which social entrepreneurs operate and how their decision-making prioritizes community stakeholders. The research builds on the work of established critical theorists, existing professional nonprofit and entrepreneurial codes of ethics, and incorporates culturally ethical research models to propose a conceptual framework for social entrepreneurship ethics. The proposed conceptual framework aims to guide social entrepreneurs in navigating the complex interplay of ethical dilemmas, power dynamics, and cultural contexts they encounter. By synthesizing traditional ethical models, critical theory considerations, and a culturally responsive, reflexive, and relationship-based model, this framework seeks to provide a robust, adaptable approach to ethical decision-making grounded in social justice, equity, and respect for diverse cultural norms. These results have implications for entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship education, as well as for establishing a culturally responsive, relational, and reflexive professional code of ethics for social entrepreneurs.

Applying the theory of dynamic capabilities, this research explores the procedures and the outcomes of adaptations in disaster relief nonprofit organizations. Using the in-depth interviews and survey data from the managers of disaster relief nonprofit organizations in Arizona, Florida, and New Jersey, this research answers three key questions: 1) How do disaster relief nonprofit organizations apply their dynamic capabilities to make adaptations? 2) What are the impacts of dynamic capabilities, including sensing, learning, integrating, and coordinating capabilities, on the performance of disaster relief nonprofit organizations in service provision, public policy engagement, and community social capital cultivation? 3) Taking the network of Voluntary/Community Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD/COAD) as an example, can the dynamic capabilities of disaster relief nonprofit organizations explain the variation of network engagement and the gained benefits from the network among the VOAD/COAD members? The results show that the procedures of adaptation in disaster relief nonprofit organizations are associated with a rhizomic rather than a linear approach, which is implied by the theory of dynamic capabilities. Strategic connectivity, temporal simultaneity, and directional flexibility are the three critical features of the rhizome model. Additionally, dynamic capabilities significantly influence organizational performance in service provision, public policy engagement, and social capital cultivation, although sensing, learning, integrating, and coordinating capabilities shape performance differently. Moreover, network engagement, as an uncommon practice for disaster relief nonprofit organizations, is also impacted by the dynamic capabilities of disaster relief nonprofit organizations. The result shows that dynamic capabilities, especially learning capability, can promote the acquired benefits of disaster relief nonprofit organizations by bringing them more support in volunteer management and financial opportunities. The findings not only advance the current discussion about nonprofit engagement in disaster management but also add knowledge on dynamic capabilities in the third sector. The exploration of adaptations in disaster relief nonprofit organizations and the operation of the VOAD/COAD network provides valuable implications to both nonprofit managers and government officials.

This study examines the roles and impacts of U.S. foundation grantmaking for women, as well as the influences of the foundations’ institutional characteristics on their grantmaking practices by employing a mixed-methods research design. In the first quantitative phase, this study explores three major research questions: (1) How has foundation grantmaking for women changed in the U.S.? (2) Whether and how foundations’ institutional characteristics are related to their grantmaking activities for women? (3) Whether and how foundation grantmaking for women has influenced women’s status? To address these research questions, I collect and analyze data on the U.S. foundation grants for women during the period between 2005 and 2014 from the Foundation Center and data indicating women’s status at the state level from various sources. The second qualitative phase focuses on examining the second and third research questions further by employing a comparative case study approach. Specifically, I conducted semi-structured interviews with directors or staff of the selected five foundations supporting women’s causes. The results show that foundations supporting women’s causes have focused more on their advocacy role than their charitable role by distributing their grants to programs for women’s rights/studies. Additionally, a foundation is more likely to give grants for women’s rights/studies when the organization is younger, with a higher total giving size, in the Western region, in the state of liberal ideology, or an independent foundation. Furthermore, a state with a larger amount of foundation grants for women (per woman) reveals a higher women’s status. The case study findings indicate that differences exist in how foundations implement their grantmaking decisions for women and how foundations assess their grantmaking impact on women. It also shows some evidence that foundations’ grantmaking decisions and impact assessment strategies for women are affected by the foundations’ institutional characteristics such as women’s leadership. This dissertation sheds light on our understanding of current trends of U.S. foundation grantmaking for women that was less focused and makes both theoretical and practical contributions to the nonprofit sector by suggesting a framework to assess the impact of foundations in society.

ABSTRACT Food insecurity is a global concern and is acute in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as well as pockets in the global North. In the lush green spaces of “God’s Own Country”, the state of Kerala in India, about 379,000 women are engaged in farming in about 75,800 groups. Spearheaded by Kudumbashree, the State Poverty Eradication Mission (SPEM) the women farmers, along with women who co-own other micro-enterprises, totaling approximately 4.5 million members in all, are part of a quiet revolution. Through a powerful statewide network of tens of thousands of well-trained community-based educators, SPEM facilitates non-formal education in farming, other livelihoods, and gender-based oppression. Boosted by this non-formal education and abundant informal learning, the women group farmers have taken matters into their own hands. Rather than wait for their male family members to rescue them from economic hardship, the women farmers learn to grow nutritious food both for family consumption and for sale. In the process, they are creating pathways for the practice of food justice in their families, villages, and the entire state. The study focuses on two women’s farming groups, one from the highly marginalized Adivasi (ancient inhabitants, or tribal population) and one from the general population. The primary research question is: “How do women in collective/group farming initiatives learn to build capacity for food justice?”. The study found the building of a robust set of capacities such as effective leadership, participatory decision-making, and shared power critical to community development, thereby generating income, financial literacy, and a sense of empowerment. The findings also suggest that the women farmers are making steady gains in the arena of women’s agency and empowerment in harmony with their families, aided by 50,000 community educators who focus on building awareness about gender-based oppression and ways to combat it. This study pertains to two concerns in community development: 1) The role of the “invisible” learning dimension in capacity building and 2) food justice. The study is relevant to communities everywhere, including food-insecure pockets both in the global south and the global north. Keywords: Learning, capacity building, the practice of food justice, women’s empowerment.

Nonprofits provide social goods: They deliver needed community services, mobilize groups for social causes, allow individuals to express values and faith, and provide a space for people to generate social innovations. Some nonprofits may continue indefinitely; others intentionally finish operations when its mission is accomplished; yet others may experience diminished capacity to operate that lead them to stop operations temporarily or permanently (e.g., closures). This research aims to uncover the elements and conditions that lead nonprofits to discontinue operations. By challenging the dichotomous paradigm of the life course in nonprofits that assigns organizations to alive vs. dead categories, this research uses the concept of organizational discontinuity to integrate the understanding of the diverse ways in which nonprofits suspend operations. To explain organizational discontinuities, a conceptual framework rooted in organizational theories is presented. Nonprofits under study come from a national subsample of 501(c)(3) charities that reported operations in 2003 and no longer showed evidence of continued activity in 2019. To characterize the types of discontinuities, this research uses organizational autopsies, which is a research method that uses administrative and online secondary data to diagnose the operational status of nonprofits. To further understand organizational discontinuities, this research presents a closer look at two representative phenomena, closures and dissolutions of non-surviving organizations in mergers. Case studies of 36 organizations help to identify the elements associated with organizational discontinuities in nonprofits. Results include a detailed categorization of types of organizational discontinuities and an identification of the internal and external elements associated with closures and mergers in older nonprofits. Conceptually, this research aims to contribute to the discussion of organizational change in nonprofits as an irregular and multicausal process. Data and method advancements include the use of online secondary data as an alternative to breaking with the existing reliance on administrative data in studies of the nonprofit sector. Finally, the results of this research aim to inform practitioners about the capacity-building areas that organizations should strengthen to prevent discontinuity of operations.

Service learning has become an integral part of the pre-departure volunteer training program of Amigos de las Américas. However, the understanding and implementation of related curricula has been inconsistent and, at times, unreflective of the principles of this learning strategy. Through a literature review and interviews with training representatives from chapters across the country, a better understanding of service learning itself, as well as the way it is carried out within the organization today, were key elements in gathering information and evaluating what can be changed to make this more effective in the Amigos de las Américas context. Results showed that confusion amongst the chapters and lack of resources obstructed the implementation of true service learning in many cases. Thus, a proposal to integrate the service learning and general training requirements, as well as a model to evaluate the effectiveness of service learning, resulted.

This thesis seeks to provide insight into the challenges rural women in Latin America face in
receiving socio-economic benefits from their participation in collective enterprises. The study
draws upon research from the field of development, entrepreneurship, and cooperatives, focusing
on rural women in Guatemala. The research questions explored are: 1) ‘What is known about
entrepreneurial strategies to overcome poverty among rural women in Latin America, specifically
cooperatives and specifically in Guatemala?; and 2) ‘What are the main conditions for the
success of rural women’s vermiculture cooperatives in Guatemala from the perspectives of their
members, in terms a) infrastructure and equipment; b) work arrangements; c) member’s learning;
and d) member’s confidence in the financial success of the coop?’. The study was conducted in
an exploratory manner using case study methodology to provide a richness to study findings. The
study found that pre-conditions for a successful cooperative include a secure and easily accessible
location, and highlights the importance of inclusive leadership, the mastery of basic skills, and
opportunities for learning more advanced business skills.

College students are historically an underrepresented demographic group of American volunteers. Based on a combination of research on volunteer motivations and a study conducted of Arizona State University students, this paper identifies major motivations of college students for the purpose of pinpointing strategies to recruit college-aged volunteers for non-profit organizations and student-led service initiatives on college campuses. From a sample of 271 ASU students, it can be concluded that students are motivated to volunteer by enjoying the work that they are doing, caring about the cause they are working for, being asked to volunteer, and participating in volunteer work with a group or student organization to which they belong. All variable groups in this study represent actions and opinions of college volunteering unless otherwise specified. The respondents were most passionate about causes that involved education, poverty alleviation, working with children, and human rights. Additionally, the most effective avenues found for informing college students about volunteer opportunities were: email, social media, friends, word-of-mouth, and Volunteermatch.org. In other words, students are informed of events both personally and from the Internet. The most effective strategies identified to recruit college student volunteers include classroom announcements through student leaders, social media and Internet marketing, fliers around campus and in residence halls, and consistent emphasis on the impact that the students' efforts will have on the causes that they care most about.