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Community leadership as multi‐dimensional capacities: A conceptual framework and preliminary findings for community foundations
Author(s) -
Wu Viviana Chiu Sik
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nonprofit management and leadership
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.844
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1542-7854
pISSN - 1048-6682
DOI - 10.1002/nml.21467
Subject(s) - conceptual framework , citizen journalism , foundation (evidence) , sociology , public relations , knowledge management , community engagement , field (mathematics) , empirical evidence , conceptual model , management science , political science , computer science , engineering , social science , epistemology , philosophy , mathematics , database , pure mathematics , law
Community foundations are increasingly looked to as community leaders that coalesce money, people, knowledge, and networks for addressing public problems at the local level. However, the field remains difficult to grasp—what it is and how it materializes in practice. Drawing from both academic and practitioner literature, this article proposes a multidimensional conceptual framework that construes community leadership in six capacities ranging from (a) strategizing, (b) convening, (c) knowledge building, (d) capacity building, (e) partnering, to (f) policy engagement. I applied this conceptual framework to analyze 539 annual reports of U.S. community foundations using semi‐automated content analysis. The empirical analysis shows that they tend to specialize in one or a few leadership capacities, but not necessarily all six components. In particular, the capability approach to community leadership through capacity building, partnering, and policy engagement is more favorable among community foundations than a participatory approach through convening and knowledge building. This article contributes to building the conceptual foundation and provides preliminary evidence to advance future research on the foundations' role in community leadership.