Plotting a path for NFPs

Advocacy group Youngcare and the Business School at the University of Queensland have teamed up to research the changing nature of not-for-profit (NFP) organisations in Australia.

The social innovation project will focus on developing the leadership and performance of NFP organisations to ensure their commercial sustainability.

It will explore the challenging relationship between the public sector, the private sector and government as well as strategies for attracting funding.

The research will also examine how NFP organisations can better respond to the changing expectations of younger volunteers.

Youngcare co-founder Nick Bonifant said the results of the research could benefit the broader NFP sector throughout Australia.

“We have come from a commercial background and we have applied a lot of the principles from that environment to Youngcare,” said Mr Bonifant.

“In doing that, we have been reasonably successful and now we are looking at why that is the case and we hope to offer those answers to the rest of the not-for-profit sector.”

Mr Bonifant said the scholarships had been made possible by an existing partnership between Youngcare and Suncorp CTP.

“The relationship was formed when Suncorp recognised the synergy between Youngcare’s potential residents and their own clients – they understood that it wasn’t appropriate for young people to end up in aged care,” said Mr Bonifant.

The research will be conducted by a PhD student over three-and-a-half years with the support of an annual $25,000 scholarship provided by Youngcare.

The UQ Business School will also provide $10,000 each year to support research costs.

“The primary motive of going to a business school is that they can measure the economics of what we do and provide quantities around activities like brand marketing,” said Mr Bonifant.

Youngcare was established to create residential alternatives for young people with high care needs.