Know Me Before You Speak for Me: Substantive Public Representation Among Nonprofits

Abstract

Nonprofit and public administration scholars have increasingly turned attention to the wide variety of channels by which nonprofit organizations may influence public policy, raising critical questions about nonprofit representation. While recent years have brought important work about the extent to which nonprofits are perceived as symbolic representatives of their clients, scholars repeatedly note substantive representation remains understudied. This article seeks to address that gap by offering a conceptual framework of potential nonprofit substantive representation mechanisms. Two categories of mechanisms emerged from a scan of scholarly and practitioner literature—client engagement and client assessment, while an exploratory case study of one nonprofit’s explicit endeavor to improve substantive representation surfaced a third category—immersion. We offer this framework as a useful first step in organizing and presenting mechanisms for consideration, and to encourage future exploration and testing of mechanisms by which nonprofits may come to substantively understand those whom they represent.

Keywords:

• decision making
• engagement
• effectiveness
• inclusive public management
• management of nonprofit organizations
• nonprofit organizations
• representation
• participation
• policy
• public accountability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristi Andrasik

Kristi Andrasik is pursuing a doctorate in urban policy at Cleveland State University. A licensed independent social worker with a background in community-based services, she is focusing her research on issues of social equity at the intersection of lived experience, service delivery, philanthropy, and public policy. She currently works as a Program Officer for the Cleveland Foundation, serves on several Ohio policy and equity philanthropy committees, and is an Ohio LGBTQ Funding Ambassador.

Joseph W. Mead

Joseph W. Mead is an Assistant Professor, Cleveland State University, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.