Public management involves leading, coordinating, and stimulating public agencies and programs to deliver excellent performance. Research and practice of public management have developed rapidly in recent years, drawing on the fields of public policy, public administration, and business management. In carrying out their crucial roles in shaping what government delivers, public managers today must confront daunting challenges imposed by shifting policy agendas, constrained financial resources combined with constant public demands for a rich array of public services, and increasing interdependence among public, private, and third-sector institutions and actors. At the same time, these challenges and other developments offer exciting opportunities for improving knowledge and practice in public management, for the benefit of everyone. In this volume, leading scholars contribute advances in the theory, methods, and practice in this burgeoning field. The selections address four key topics: the nature and impact of public management; creative new methods for public management research; reform, reinvention, innovation, and change; and, new models and frameworks for understanding and improving public management.

Collaboration and partnership are well-known characteristics of the nonprofit sector, as well as important tools of public policy and for creating public value. But how do nonprofits form successful partnerships? From the perspective of nonprofit practice, the conditions leading to collaboration and partnership are seldom ideal. Nonprofit executives contemplating interorganizational cooperation, collaboration, networks, partnership, and merger face a bewildering array of challenges. In Partnerships the Nonprofit Way: What Matters, What Doesn't, the authors share the success and failures of 52 nonprofit leaders. By depicting and contextualizing nonprofit organization characteristics and practices that make collaboration successful, the authors propose new theory and partnership principles that challenge conventional concepts centered on contractual fulfillment and accountability, and provide practical advice that can assist nonprofit leaders and others in creating and sustaining strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships of their own.

Collaboration and partnership are well-known characteristics of the nonprofit sector, as well as important tools of public policy and for creating public value. But how do nonprofits form successful partnerships? From the perspective of nonprofit practice, the conditions leading to collaboration and partnership are seldom ideal. Nonprofit executives contemplating interorganizational cooperation, collaboration, networks, partnership, and merger face a bewildering array of challenges. In Partnerships the Nonprofit Way: What Matters, What Doesn't, the authors share the success and failures of 52 nonprofit leaders. By depicting and contextualizing nonprofit organization characteristics and practices that make collaboration successful, the authors propose new theory and partnership principles that challenge conventional concepts centered on contractual fulfillment and accountability, and provide practical advice that can assist nonprofit leaders and others in creating and sustaining strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships of their own.

Policymakers, civic leaders, and scholars have increasingly focused their attention over the last decade-and-a-half on the importance of voluntary participation in civil society. From George H. W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps to George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives, it is undeniable that communities are looking to increase their levels of charity and voluntarism in the provision of public goods and services. What mobilizes giving and volunteering? What are the characteristics of communities that are engaged, and those that are not? What can policymakers and nonprofit managers do to change the current landscape in places with low levels of participation? These are the questions this edited collection addresses. It is the first book specifically dedicated to community giving and volunteering efforts with a best practices element. Published in cooperation with the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University.