Beyond the Grant: Multidimensional Power in Foundation-Nonprofit Relationships

Power is a central yet often underexamined dimension of philanthropic relationships. In foundation-nonprofit grantmaking, foundations control financial resources and are therefore widely assumed to dominate the relationship. While existing scholarship documents this structural asymmetry, less attention has been given to how nonprofit grantees exercise influence within these relationships. This dissertation examines how nonprofits exercise power in foundation-grantee relationships and how organizational resources enable or constrain such influence. Drawing on Lukes’s multidimensional theory of power, the study conceptualizes power in grantmaking as operating across three dimensions—decision-making, agendasetting, and discursive power—and distinguishes between the sources of power (i.e., various forms of organizational capital) and the exercise of power in collaborative interactions. The research is situated in China, a tightly regulated and high powerdistance context that provides a revealing setting for examining how nonprofits navigate structurally asymmetric relationships. This dissertation adopts a mixed-methods design. The qualitative phase employs grounded theory based on 52 interviews with nonprofit leaders, foundation representatives, and sector experts, supplemented by site visits and document analysis. Building on these insights, the quantitative phase analyzes original survey data collected from 247 social service organizations across China. The two phases provide both indepth contextual understanding and broader empirical testing. The findings reveal that power in foundation-nonprofit relationships is multidimensional and varies along a spectrum from foundation dominance to shared influence and, in some cases, nonprofit-led dynamics. Nonprofits exercise agency by mobilizing different forms of organizational capital, including social, political, symbolic, mission-driven, reputational, knowledge, and institutional capital. These capitals operate through distinct mechanisms: relation-based capital generates access, positional leverage, and short-term influence, while capability-based capital enables deeper and sustained influence through expertise, credibility, and dialogue. In authoritarian contexts, these mechanisms produce a dual-track pattern of nonprofit power: one rooted in political embeddedness and the other in knowledge-based authority. The study also shows contextual factors, such as foundation size and value misalignment, shape how these capitals translate into influence. By integrating theories of power, organizational capital, and philanthropy, this dissertation offers a multidimensional framework for understanding power in foundationnonprofit relationships and provides new methodological tools for empirically studying power in collaborative governance.

Author dc:creator

• You, Wenpei

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paarlberg, Laurie

• agenda-setting
• decision-making
• discursive
• grantmaking relationship
• organizational capital
• organizational power

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/56393

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.indianapolis.iu.edu:1805/56393