Antecedents of Nonprofit Collaboration: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations often rely on collaboration to address complex challenges and achieve shared goals. Despite extensive research on this topic, the antecedents of such collaborations remain inconsistently understood. As part of the effort to extract and integrate knowledge from decades of research on nonprofit collaboration within and across sectoral boundaries, this article examines the individual, organizational, and environmental-level antecedents of nonprofit collaboration by producing a meta-analysis of 47 research articles employing 582 effect sizes. The findings show that, out of 22 antecedents identified in our study, one individual-level antecedent (trust) and six organizational-level antecedents (size, capacity, homophily, shared vision, revenue dependency, and resource insufficiency) are significantly associated with a nonprofit respondent's decision or preference to engage (or not to engage) in collaborative activities with other organizations. Overall, the decision to collaborate is a story best told at the organizational level, based mainly on two broad sets of organizational considerations: resource needs and shared qualities among partners. These insights offer a clearer roadmap for understanding the conditions that foster collaboration, informing both future research and practical strategies for effective partnerships.