A Test for the Welfare-Partnership: Austria’s Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in Times of Covid-19

Abstract

The pandemic has impeded Austrian NPHSOs on multiple levels: service delivery, income streams, costs, and human resources. To analyze the consequences, we tackle two questions: How has the neo-corporatist welfare-partnership between the government and NPHSOs passed this stress-test? What are the potential effects on the overall composition of the sector? Theoretically, we draw on social origins theory to explain the welfare-partnership in Vienna. Empirically, we analyze online-survey-data and interviews with NPHSO-executives from 2021. The results indicate that Vienna’s welfare-partnership has passed this stress-test successfully, but overall in favor of large NPHSOs, thus forwarding concentration in the sector.