Surviving mission drift: How charities can turn dependence on government contract funding to their own advantage
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: The widespread contracting out to British charities of welfare services previously furnished by the state has resulted in many charities operating in fields well outside those specified by their original missions. Challenges connected with charity mission drift have received a great deal of (mainly negative and critical) attention in the nonprofit practitioner literature in recent years, yet no academic research has been completed into exactly how charities respond managerially and operationally to government‐induced mission drift. This empirical study attempted to fill this important gap in knowledge about charity management through in‐depth case studies of three charities known to have experienced substantial mission drift during the last decade, focusing on the styles and types of approach the organizations had adopted in their dealings with government funding agencies. It emerged that the three charities accepted mission drift as a fact of life. Rather than simply supplying contract services to government bodies, the charities were highly proactive in seeking to initiate, direct, control, and assume overall strategic responsibility for state‐funded activities.
DOI: 10.1002/nml.20050
Authors: Roger Bennett, Sharmila Savani
Institution: London Metropolitan University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2103650176