Census Shows Strong Trend toward Larger Social Service Organizations

A paper published in Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly suggests that the scale of organizations needs to be given more consideration in studies of nonprofits. 

Regular readers of WMN know that one of our most persistent themes is the importance of issues of scale in charity organizations, and most particularly the difficulties faced by the large number of extremely small scale charities.  This paper provides further confirmation (David J. Tucker & David H. Sommerfeld, The Larger They Get: The Changing Size Distributions of Private Human Service Organizations, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 2, June 2006 183-203).

The paper as a whole won't be available online for awhile, but here is a table that presents one of the key findings.  This looks at the employment in social service firms (which includes organizations with multiple sites) by the total number of employees in the firm.  It shows that from 1987 to 2000, the percentage employed in organizations with less than 20 employees declined from 23.2% to 17.5%, while the percentage employed in organizations with 500 or more employees increased from 14.9% to 24.5%. 

	Percent of social service employment In firms with total employment of:
	Less than 20	20 to 99	100 to 499	500 or more
1987	23.2%	31.7%	30.2%	14.9%
1990	21.9%	29.2%	29.4%	19.5%
2000	17.5%	26.6%	31.4%	24.5%

Other tables show that the share of total establishments (individual worplaces) in large (500+) organizations increased from 5.5% to 12.3%, more than doubling in share. 

In addition, the average size of establishments also showed an increase, though not as dramatic, indicating that while individual work units are becoming somewhat larger, the overall trend is for organizations that include a larger number of work units.  This certainly coincides with my observation of trends in social service agencies:  the units themselves are not significantly larger, but their administrative support comes from being part of a larger nonprofit organization (often that of a hospital). 

There is also a chart with estimates of the birth and death rates of different size organizations over the years, which points to a conclusion that organizations with fewer than 100 employees are under more pressure than those above that line. 

We hope to see more studies like this one that explores the differences in performance, management, and impace among different size organizations.  The fact that most of the social service sector is now employed in organization with 100 or more people has implications for careers and for appropriate training. 

Other WMN stories in this vein:

• Study: Smallest Organizations Face Biggest Transition Challenges
• Study: Smallest Charities have Lowest Job Satisfaction
• Are There Too Many Charities?
• IRS Data Shows Largest Nonprofits Have Biggest Economic Impact
• Small Institutions Put Cultural Heritage at Greatest Risk

Comments

[バーバリーマフラー]

東京電力福島第一原発事故で東電に巨額の損失が生じたのは、経営陣が地震や津波の安全対策を怠ってきたためだとして、株主らが東電に対し、歴代の経営陣に損害賠償請求訴訟を起こすよう求める書面を提出する方針を固めたことが分かった
請求額や対象者を検討した上で、今月中にも提出したいとしている。提出後、６０日以内に東電が提訴しない場合、株主代表訴訟を東京地裁に起こすという。
株主の一人は「このままでは、過去の経営陣の責任追及があいまいになってしまう。裁判で責任の所在をはっきりさせるべきだ」と話した。一方、東電は「内容を把握していないので、コメントは差し控える」としている。

[ティンバーランド]

ティンバーランドカナダのケント環境相は12日、先進国に温室効果ガスの排出削減義務を課した京都議定書から正式に離脱することを明らかにした。主要メディアが報じた。
　ティンバーランド同環境相は「わが国は京都議定書から正式に離脱する法的権利を行使する」と述べた。