Dissertation Defense by Elizabeth A. Castillo

Location

Mother Rosalie Hill Hall, 211

Free*

SPINNING STRAW INTO GOLD: A STUDY OF RESOURCE CREATION, FLOW, AND CONVERSION IN A NONPROFIT COLLABORATION

By Elizabeth A. Castillo

Committee

Afsaneh Nahavandi, PhD, Chair
Mary B. McDonald, PhD, Member
Hans Peter Schmitz, PhD, Member

ABSTRACT

     Throughout history people have joined together to improve their individual lives. In the modern era, these cooperative tendencies are expressed in many forms, including organizations joining together to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. In the nonprofit sector, organizations that collaborate are increasingly expected to produce system-level change too. This collective impact approach is under-theorized and therefore not consistently actionable. A central puzzle is how formal nonprofit collaborations acquire resource inputs and transform them into outputs, outcomes, and impact while producing financial returns to sustain the backbone organization.
     To address this gap in the literature, this study examined the role that resources play in a 501(c)3 collaboration of 29 arts and culture organizations in California. Using an informed grounded theory design with mixed methods of data collection and analysis, the investigation developed a robust case study to research the anomaly of how a formal collaboration established in 2001 has been able to survive and grow when many similar collective action organizations struggle financially. Through process tracing, the study identified resource inputs and documented their flow and transformation to discern the mechanisms of their mobilization and conversion. Process tracing was also used to assess seven rival hypotheses to explain the anomaly.
     Findings indicate the collaboration deploys multiple forms of capital (financial, physical, human, relational, symbolic, and structural) and generates some of these forms itself. The mechanisms for this genesis are catalytic processes, notably communicating, leading, connecting, learning, and investing. These processes activate and transform latent potential of tangible and intangible resources into productive forms that help sustain the collaboration. Six of the rival hypotheses were found to be not supported. The seventh, termed resource interdependence theory, was supported. Six affiliated propositions are presented. In addition to these theoretical contributions the study systematically maps the currency of civil society, creating an actionable typology that can serve as a framework to design collective impact strategies and philanthropic decision-making. The study also suggests that the construct of capacity building may be more usefully thought of as capital building.

*Free to USD Graduate Students, Faculty, Staff and Alumni