Creating a sustainable organization is no small feat. Highly competitive start-up environments favor experience and existing networks of power and finance, which often do not allow equal opportunities for all. Because many nonprofits start and provide services in overlooked communities for economically disenfranchised residents, it is important to understand the intersection of the start-up process and entrepreneurial dynamics surrounding these communities.
While individuals with lived experience in under-invested and overlooked communities understand their needs the best, structural inequalities leave them with the least access to the resources required to start nonprofits that best meet those needs.
“Diversity in Nonprofit Entrepreneurship” – a research paper prepared for Independent Sector – raises an important question around how we can encourage the growth of strategies, ways, and tools to enable more people with lived experiences to start nonprofits that meet their communities’ needs for healthy and equitable places to live.
Its co-authors are Dr. Fredrik O. Andersson (Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis), Dr. Lewis Faulk (American University), Dr. Teresa Harrison (Drexel University), and Dr. Jesse Lecy (Arizona State University and Urban Institute).
Dr. Mirae Kim is the visiting scholar at Independent Sector. She is an associate professor of Nonprofit Studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
