Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2019

DOI

10.1515/npf-2019-0004

Publication Title

Nonprofit Policy Forum

Pages

1-15

Abstract

Trade and business associations and professional membership societies like many other political interest groups in the United States advocate and lobby their interests in the policy arena. Yet, we lack the understanding of how organizational capabilities shape different forms of political engagement in trade and professional associations. Research on the political involvement of tax-exempt organizations has been focused on charitable nonprofits. Studying the elements that underlie political action strategies and tactics of trade and professional associations would expand our understanding of political engagement in the nonprofit sector. In our sample of occupational mutual benefit associations, both resource dependence and institutional factors such as board size, affiliated foundation, tax-exempt status, business classification, and membership type explained the likelihood of political strategies including advocacy, lobbying, grassroots activity, and having a political action committee (PAC). Organizational size characteristics such as budget, staff, and membership size mattered as well.

Comments

©2019 Saitgalina, Dicke et al., published by DeGruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 Public License.

ORCID

0000-0001-5431-9314 (Saitgalina)

Original Publication Citation

Saitgalina, M., Dicke Lisa, A., & Birungi, P. (2019). Organizational determinants of political involvement in trade and professional membership associations. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 1-15. doi:10.1515/npf-2019-0004

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