Competition in the Nonprofit Sector: A Strategic Marketing Framework by

The longstanding tradition of cooperation in the not-for-profit sector is facing powerful pressures that are driving it toward greater competition. Although this trend is most obvious in fundraising and volunteer recruitment activities, it has also led to competition for clients, thereby producing important and largely unappreciated changes in the way nonprofit organizations deliver their services. Existing business models of competition provide useful insights, but do not fully capture the distinctive characteristics of not-for-profit organizations. We propose a new model that incorporates these considerations in order to enhance conceptual understanding and managerial decision-making. Specifically, we distinguish three broad forms of nonprofit competition: (1) combative, where rivals have incompatible value systems and behavior is hostile; (2) collegial, where rivals’ objectives differ modestly and collaboration is widespread, and; (3) alternative, where rivals pursue different approaches to the same problem, and behavior is neither antagonistic nor cooperative. Our model also identifies four categories of forces that are seen to shape the nature and intensity of competition: social forces, product forces, audience forces and internal forces. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed.