ABSTRACT

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have access to a limited amount of funding which must finance multiple activities. The challenge of allocating resources includes setting an appropriate budget for fundraising. The dynamic optimization model developed in this study enables an NPO to maximize the services that it can provide over time by calculating the optimal amounts of fundraising and service expenses for each period. It highlights the trade-off NPOs face in allocating resources to either services or fundraising. Our analysis provides practitioners with initial recommendations as to how an NPO’s resource allocation can be adjusted to suit different environmental settings. From a research perspective, the paper presents an analytic modeling approach grounded in well-founded economic theory, which addresses the challenge of resource allocation between fundraising and service expenses. We also discuss directions for future research and provide suggestions for other researchers and practitioners interested in this field.

摘要

非营利组织（NPO）只能使用数量有限的资金，而这些资金必须资助多项活动。分配资源的挑战包括为筹款设定适当的预算。本研究中开发的动态优化模型使NPO可以通过计算每个时期的最佳筹款和服务费用来最大化其可以随时间提供的服务。它强调了非营利组织非营利组织在分配资源用于服务或筹款时面临的问题。我们的分析为从业人员提供了有关如何调整NPO的资源分配以适应不同环境设置的初步建议。从研究的角度来看，本文提出了一种基于经验丰富的经济理论的分析建模方法，解决了筹款和服务费用之间资源分配的挑战。我们还将讨论未来研究的方向，并向对该领域感兴趣的其他研究人员和从业人员提供建议。