Friday, May 23, 2014

Chapter FOUR - Results

Results
This chapter explains the methods used to carry out the research project and presents the findings.  While the study was designed to be exploratory, an electronic survey process was used to capture both quantitative and qualitative data. To determine the nonprofit advancement’s perceptions about the organization’s climate, a Likert scale was applied to a set of statements.  Following the quantitative section, a series of open-ended items were presented to get to the main issue being researched which is a picture of the lived experiences of the nonprofit advancement members.  The stories of how the nonprofit advancement members secured or lost nonprofit funding due to the interaction of organizational leadership and/or non-fundraising organizational members. 
Research Context
The study took place with a community of advancement professionals.  The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) has several chapters throughout the world.  Two particular chapters were selected as mentioned in chapter three (The Mid-America and the Greater Wichita Chapters of AFP).  These groups consist of advancement professionals, consultants and others who support fundraising activities and training.  The chapters span a geographical area from Kansas to North Dakota.
Research Participants
The particular participants for this study consisted of those within the aforementioned groups that were fulltime advancement professionals for a particular organization.  There was no real attempt to select genders or ages of the participants.  Participants did provide their gender, level of education and length of time with the organization.  Length of time as a fundraiser was not considered though it was mentioned by some in their qualitative responses.
Research participants consisted of 21 individuals, three males and 18 females.  The two targeted groups selected for this study consisted of 255 individuals.  This sample of 21 represented 8.25% of the target population. 
Research Instruments
The electronic survey consisted of 27 questions.  There were six demographic items.  There were 16 items involving a Likert scale to determine the participant’s view of the organization’s climate.  The remaining five questions were open ended questions about the fundraiser’s experience with organizational leaders and other non-fundraising organizational members and their success or not of securing funds for their organization.
Demographics of the Sample
The demographic data were placed into SPSS for analysis.  Using crosstabs, the information shows variation in length of employment and level of education.   
The demographic items show that there were three males and 18 females who responded to the survey.  Each of the participants have at least a bachelor’s degree, eight have a masters and one with a doctorate.
Table 2 Sample Demographics (N=21)
How long have you worked for this organization?
Male
Female
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
less than one year
1
6
4
3
0
more than 1 year less than 3 years
0
6
3
3
0
more than 3 years less than 5 years
1
1
1
1
0
more than 5 years less than 10 years
1
5
4
1
1
Total
3
18
12
8
1










Perceptions of Organizational Climate
The 16 Likert scale items each measure an individual characteristic of organizational climate.  The questionnaire was created using three existing surveys as a model. The Personal Leadership Questionnaire as developed at Tarleton State University of Texas.  The Leadership Assessment Personal Satisfaction Survey as developed at the Learning Center by Dr. Arky Ciancutti (2011).  The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument as developed by Cameron and Quinn (2000) and downloaded from the Illinois State University website (http://my.ilstu.edu/~llipper/com435/survey_ocai_culture.pdf).  Using SPSS, frequency tables were created for each of the 16 items showing the percentages and counts of subjects degree of agreement or disagreement they had with each item. 
As the data was reviewed three distinct categories of items emerged.  These categories were items related to the nonprofit advancement member, organizational leadership and non-fundraising organizational members. (see Table 3)

Table 3 Organizational Climate Items by Category
Category
Number of Survey Items
Nonprofit Advancement Member
7
Organizational Leadership
6
Non-fundraising organizational members
3

The discussion of findings is presented below by category with tables showing the frequency distribution for each.
Nonprofit Advancement Category of Organizational Climate Items
The responses that generated the highest number of subjects that strongly agreed were all categorized as being related to the individual fundraiser.  Two items had over 80% of the subjects strongly agreeing: I am committed to the organization (86%) and I am clear regarding the expectation of raising funds (81%). The items involving feeling appreciated for efforts varied as when the item speaking to appreciation of the funds collected had a high overall agreement (95%) with 71% who strongly agree and 24% who agreed. However the item I believe leadership appreciates me had an overall agreement of just 76% with 43% strongly agreeing and 33% agreeing. There was 91% overall agreement that organizational leadership trusts me to make the right decisions; 48% strongly agreed and 43% agreed. Lastly, regarding whether the subjects often tell people this is a great place to work., 57% strongly agreed with another 19% agreeing with this statement.  
An interesting finding for the Individual Category items were that two items within this category had 19% and 14% of the subjects indicating they were neutral for the item.  The item I tell people often that this organization is a great place to work had 19% of the subjects choosing a neutral response. I believe that organizational leadership appreciates me had 14% of the subjects choosing to be neutral in response.  See Table 4.

Table 4 Individual Organizational Climate Items Frequency Distribution (N=21)
Individual Organizational Climate Items
Strongly
Agree
(n/%)
Somewhat
Agree
(n/%)
Strongly
Disagree
(n/%)
Somewhat
Disagree
(n/%)
Neutral
(n/%)
I do not
Know (n/%)
No Answer (n/%)
I am committed to this organization.
18/86%
2/10%
0
0
1/5%
0
0
The organization expects me to ask for personal, corporate, foundation and church donations.
17/81%
1/5%
1/5%
2/10%
0
0
0
The organization appreciates when I obtain personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.
15/71%
5/24%
0
0
1/5%
0
0
I tell people often that this organization is a great place to work.
12/57%
4/19%
0
0
4/19%
0
1/5%
I believe that organizational leadership trusts me to make the right decision.
10/48%
9/43%
0
1/5%
1/5%
0
0
The organization clearly communicates its goals and strategies to me.
9/43%
11/52%
0
1/5%
0
0
0
I believe that organizational leadership appreciates me
9/43%
7/33%
0
1/5%
3/14%
0
1/5%

Organizational Leadership Category of Organizational Climate Items
The leadership category had responses in several of the Likert scale choices.  No real clear section stood out.  There were some very close scores across the four scales of strongly agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree and somewhat disagree.  The next highest rankings of strongly agree and somewhat agree of the entire survey were categorized as being related to organizational leadership.  77% responded strongly agree or somewhat agree that organizational leadership trusts the staff to make the right decisions.  24% strongly agreed and 53% somewhat agreed.  However, 10% responded to this same statement (organizational leadership trusts the staff to make the right decisions) as somewhat disagree and 14% responded neutral. 
77% of respondents chose strongly agree or somewhat agree to organizational leadership involves others in the planning process.  54% somewhat agree and 33% strongly agree.  33% responded strongly disagree or somewhat disagree to organizational leadership involves others in the planning process.  14% strongly disagree and 19% somewhat disagree.  10% responded as neutral.
76% responded that organizational leadership appreciates the staff of the organization.  33% strongly agreed and 43% somewhat agreed.  14% responded to this statement (organizational leadership appreciates the staff of the organization) as somewhat disagree. 
62% of respondents responded that organizational leadership appreciates the staff and creates an atmosphere of mutual trust.  43% somewhat agree and 19% strongly agree.  33% responded somewhat disagree to organizational leadership appreciates the staff and creates an atmosphere of mutual trust.  
Organizational leadership involves others in the planning process receiving 57% of responses of strongly agree (33%) and somewhat agree (24%).  This statement also garnered 33% of the strongly disagree (14%) and somewhat disagree (19%) of the responses.  10% responded as neutral.
The highest scores of strongly disagree and somewhat disagree relate to organizational leadership is asked to obtain personal, corporate, foundation or church donations (48%) and Organizational leadership understands their role in obtaining personal, corporate, foundation or church donations (43%).  24% strongly disagree and 24% somewhat disagree and 24% strongly disagree and 19% somewhat disagree respectively.  Yet, this was not a clear distinction as 52% also responded strongly agree (33%) or somewhat agree (19%).  5% responded neutral to organizational leadership understands their role in obtaining personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.  See Table 5.
Table 5 Leadership Organizational Climate Items Frequency Distribution (N=21)
Organizational Climate
Strongly
Agree
n/%
Somewhat
Agree
n/%
Strongly
Disagree
n/%
Somewhat
Disagree
n/%
Neutral
n/%
I do not
know
n/%
No Answer
n/%
I believe that organizational leadership trusts its staff to make the right decisions.
5/24%
11/53%
0
2/10%
3/14%
0
0
I believe that organizational leadership appreciates the staff of the organization.
7/33%
9/43%
0
3/14%
1/5%
1/5%
0
Organizational leadership creates an atmosphere of mutual trust.
4/19%
9/43%
0
7/33%
0
0
0
Organizational leadership involves others in the planning process.
7/33%
5/24%
3/14%
4/19%
2/10%
0
0
Organizational leadership is asked to obtain personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.
7/33%
4/19%
5/24%
5/24%
0
0
0
Organizational leadership understands their role in obtaining personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.
7/33%
4/19%
5/24%
4/19%
1/5%
0
0

Non-fundraising Organizational Member Category of Organizational Climate Items
The final category of the non-fundraising organizational members provided the highest in negative scores for two of the three questions related to this section.  58% strongly disagreed or somewhat disagreed that non-fundraising organizational members are asked to obtain personal, corporate, foundation or church donations. It was an even response of 29% for each.  52% strongly disagreed (19%) or somewhat disagreed (33%) that non-fundraising organizational members understand their role in obtaining personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.  5% responded neutral or I do not know to this statement as well.
The category also received some positive responses as well.  67% responded that commitment to this organization runs high (48% strongly agree, 19% somewhat agree).  10% responded strongly disagree (5%) and somewhat disagree (5%) to commitment to this organization runs high.  An interesting twist on this statement is that 14% responded neutral and 10% responded as I do not know.  24% of the respondents did not have a clear picture of the commitment within the organization.  See Table 6.
Table 6 Non-fundraising Organizational Member Organizational Climate Items Frequency Distribution (N=21)
Organizational Climate
Strongly
Agree
n/%
Somewhat
Agree
n/%
S trongly
Disagree
n/%
Somewhat
Disagree
n/%
Neutral
n/%
I do not
know
n/%
No Answer
n/%
Other non-fundraising organizational members are asked to obtain personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.
4/19%
4/19%
6/29%
6/29%
0
1/5%
0
Other non-fundraising organizational members understand their role in obtaining personal, corporate, foundation or church donations.
1/5%
7/33%
4/19%
7/33%
1/5%
1/5%
0
Commitment to this organization runs high.
10/48%
4/19%
1/5%
1/5%
3/14%
0
2/10%

Placing all three sections together can be seen in Chart 1.  The strongly agree and somewhat agree are added together and strongly disagree and somewhat disagree are added together.  You can see that the highest positive scores are in the nonprofit advancement (NPA) section and the highest negative scores are in the organizational leadership (OL) and the non-fundraising organizational member (STF) sections.
Responses to Open-ended questions
Analysis of the open-ended responses brought three themes to light, focus on the money, focus on the mission and focus on the donor.  Each of these themes expressed themselves in the positive and negative stories provided.  To set the stage for this section, 23% of the participants did not answer the five open ended questions.  53% of participants answered all five of the questions.  Not all answers provided insight.  Many wrote that they had not experienced the theme discussed in the question. 
Focus on the Money
In a research project where successful fundraising based on organizational climate, you would think that focusing on the money would be a good thing.  However, this is not the case.  One respondent wrote, “The organizational leadership was too concerned about the dollar goals and not about the donor’s wishes.”  Another respondent stated that the Executive Director of the organization lacked the courage to face issues and talk with donors.  No ability to share the vision of the organization.  Another respondent wrote, “a higher level manager has come in after me and taken the sponsorship for anther division making all of my work null and void.”  Leadership was focused on the money for their personal reasons and not about the relationship that breeds funding.
Focus on the mission
This theme is similar to focusing on the money.  Organizational leadership can focus on the mission of the organization without creating a connection with the donor.  “The Dean asked for a lot of money, but did not have an explanation of why the program would need it.”  Another respondent wrote, “the President did an exceptional job showing the vision and impact the university is having.”  Focusing on mission works both ways, being able to articulate the mission in a way that engages the funding source is positive.  Focusing on the mission and not creating this engagement is detrimental to securing funding.
Focus on the donor
Focusing on the donor has positive and negative impacts.  “The donor perceived that the gift they were willing to make was not appreciated by the organization and its leadership.”  “Leadership does too much talking and not enough listening in meetings with donors.”  Others wrote about experiences were the donor felt a connection with organizational leadership, has a good experience as a volunteer, or a direct benefit from a program designed by non-fundraising staff.  “The donor felt good chemistry with the organizational leadership and that made them want to support our mission.”  “A donor felt good about a bad situation after working with a sincere program staff member.” 
The responses to the open ended questions did not give a perfectly clear picture.  There were positive stories and negative stories for each of the questions.  The following table gives a numerical value to those that responded to each question with an example.  See Table 7.
Table 7 Participants that answered the question with an example (N = 16)
A. How long have you worked for this organization?
Number of participants in this criteria
unsuccessful organizational leadership
successful
organizational leadership
unsuccessful
non-fundraising organizational members
successful
non-fundraising organizational members
“smooth things over”
Less than one year
4/25%
4
4
0
2
2
more than 1 year less than 3 years
6/38%
2
6
1
6
4
more than 3 years less than 5 years
1/6%
1
1
1
1
1
more than 5 years less than 10 years
5/31%
4
4
3
3
4