The local nonprofit sector and the pursuit of sustainability in American cities: a preliminary exploration

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a study of the relationship between the nonprofit sector and the pursuit of sustainability in 13 moderate sized US cities with populations between 400,000 and 600,000. Dividing the cities into two groups – those that have been more serious and less serious about adopting and implementing sustainability policies, analysis of a survey of local public officials examines differences in the nonprofit landscape. Analysis shows that the cities that are more serious about sustainability have local public officials who interact more with nonprofit organisations, and are more likely to report the presence of at least one nonprofit group that supports city sustainability policies. Additionally, these reported groups are more likely to be “local”, or homegrown, and to be explicitly dedicated to the environment or sustainability. While far from definitive, the results provide evidence that the nonprofit sector is different in cities with sustainability policies, and suggest that the role of these nonprofit groups in the governance decisions of city leaders warrants more in-depth study.

Keywords:

• sustainable cities
• urban sustainability
• nonprofit organisation
• nonprofit sector
• sustainability policies

Notes

Nashville, Louisville, Portland, Tucson, and Albuquerque are also in this population range; Portland, Tucson, and Albuquerque have official sustainability policies; Nashville and Louisville do not.

Independent rankings of 50 US cities according to their level of sustainability by SustainLane reveals that the five “sustainable cities” carry the following ranks: Seattle, 3; Boston, 6; Denver, 11; Milwaukee, 12; Sacramento, 14; Atlanta, 19; and Kansas City, 20. Comparison cities are ranked as follows: Charlotte, 35; Fort Worth, 39; Memphis, 46; Las Vegas, 47; Oklahoma City, 49. The average ranking for the sustainable cities is 12.1, and for the comparison cities is 42.3. See http://www.sustainlane.com/us-city-rankings/overall-rankings [Accessed 22 January 2010].

The issue of the relationship between income and sustainability policies across a large number of US cities has been investigated elsewhere, with mixed results. See Kahn (2006), O'Connell (2008) and Portney (2008) for a brief review of this issue.

The mailing included the questionnaire, a one page letter on university letterhead explaining why the respondent was receiving the survey, a prepaid response tracking postcard on which they could write their name so as to remain anonymous if so desired, and a prepaid return envelope. The postcard was also used to determine eligibility to receive the free book and to be entered into the IPod raffle. After 2 weeks, a postcard reminder was sent to all respondents who had not yet returned a questionnaire. This postcard reminded the respondent that they had received our questionnaire and asked them to complete and return it. If they had not received a questionnaire, we asked them to contact us so that we could send them a replacement questionnaire. About 3 weeks after this step, a second copy of the questionnaire was sent to those who we believed had still not returned a questionnaire. All of these steps were in accordance with the standard political science literature advising the best methods by which to follow in order to maximise response rates (Dillman 2009, pp. 234–271). After speaking with a small number of respective respondents who expressed a preference for answering questionnaires over the Internet, an online version of the questionnaire was subsequently created with the assistance of the university's Office of Institutional Research and Evaluation. Email messages were sent to city councillors and city administrators who had not returned the initial mail questionnaire, offering them the option of doing the questionnaire online. The intent of the online version of the questionnaire was to offer an alternative to the mail questionnaire for those who had not returned the latter. The online questionnaire induced six additional responses.

Thirty-six of the 64 responses (56.3%) were from city councillors and 28 (43.7%) were from city administrators and Chamber of Commerce officials. Elected legislators of all types are a particularly difficult population to survey because they are often concerned about creating a paper trail on issue positions. Even though we promised respondents anonymity and confidentiality, it is difficult to overcome respondent concerns.