Little academic attention has been focused on the experiences of communities situated at the margins in receiving nonprofit services. In this essay, we draw on the culture-centered approach to critically interrogate the concept of engagement among a range of nonprofit organizations. We analyze ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a low income suburban area in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which narrative accounts of 60 residents formed the basis of our deliberations with an advisory board. Our findings indicate that many nonprofit organizations are constructed as spaces of othering that do not attend to the cultural norms or needs of those situated at the margins. Alternatively, the Head Hunters outlaw motorcycle gang and Destiny’s Church, both vilified in mainstream media outlets, were sites of significant community engagement. Our study illuminates the impact of dialogic group engagement and of initiatives being developed and driven by the community.

很少有学术注意力集中在边缘社区获得非营利服务方面的经验。在本文中，我们将使用以文化为中心的方法来批判性地询问一系列非营利组织之间的参与概念。我们分析了在新西兰Aotearoa的一个低收入郊区进行的人种志田野调查，其中60位居民的叙述叙述构成了我们与咨询委员会进行审议的基础。我们的研究结果表明，许多非营利组织被构建为互不影响的空间，这些空间不符合边缘地区的文化规范或需求。另外，猎头者取缔摩托车帮派和命运教会，这在主流媒体上都受到了谴责，它们是社区参与度很高的场所。