Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations (ARNOVA)

Lynette Cook was the executive director of ARNOVA from 2019 to March 2025. As of July 2025, ARNOVA is led by an executive transition team. ^{3 2 4}

Members

As of 2025, the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations (ARNOVA) claims to have roughly 1,200 members. ⁵ These members include staff and fellows from universities including Bay Path University, Binghamton University, Rockefeller College, Serials Receiving University of Michigan, the Nonprofit Institute at University of San Diego, the University of North Carolina Charlotte, the University of Maryland, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Witwatersrand. ⁵

Other members include those from left-of-center nonprofit organizations including Candid, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Center for Philanthropy Studies, the Do Good Institute, and The Urban Institute. ¹

History

In 1970, Boston College professor David Horton Smith organized a conference with the Center for a Voluntary Society to discuss best practices for volunteer work. In 1971, Smith incorporated the Association for Voluntary Action Studies in Washington, D.C. to continue the conference’s work. ⁵

In 1974, the organization began hosting annual conferences. By 1976, the organization had formed 14 committees dedicated to conferences, research, communication, and other volunteer organization practices. ⁵

In 1989, the organization changed its name to the Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations (ARNOVA) due to changing its focus beyond volunteer work for nonprofit operations. ⁵

In 2012, it was discovered that several ARNOVA employees had used company credit cards for personal purchases. Following this, then-executive director Thom Jeavons resigned, though ARNOVA was reimbursed $62,000 by insurance. ⁵

Activity

The Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations (ARNOVA) conducts and published research on what it claims are the best practices in the fields of volunteering and nonprofit management. The research is primarily published through two online journals: the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, which publishes its standard research, and the Occasional Paper Series, which published the results of ARNOVA’s symposiums. ⁶ As of 2025, the last Occasional Paper Series was published in 2006, ⁷ while the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly remains active as a blog. ⁸

As of July 2025, ARNOVA maintains 10 “sections” on its website that focus on specific areas of nonprofit research. The sections are Community and Grassroots Associations; Nonprofit Finance and Finance Management; Critical Perspectives Section; Public Policy, Politics, and Law; Data and Analytics Section; Social Entrepreneurship/Enterprise Sector; Early Scholars Section; Teaching Section; Governance Section; and Theories, Issues, and Boundaries Section. ⁹

ARNOVA hosts an annual conference for discussion of nonprofit development, usually in association with other nonprofits. The group’s 2025 conference will be co-hosted in September with Independent Sector and the Nonprofit Policy Forum, and will be convened virtually. ¹⁰

ARNOVA is partnered with the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council on the Nonprofit Curriculum Library, an online database for curriculum related to nonprofit development. ¹¹

ARNOVA is partnered with Grant Station on an online database of research produced at ARNOVA’s conferences. ¹²

Diversity Initiatives

In 1993, the board of  Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations released a report calling for “improving and focusing on the recruitment and retention of women and racial, ethnic, or other “minority” groups.” The board released a similar statement in 1997 while claiming to  place “particular attention to racial and ethnic diversity.” ARNOVA committees would later be asked to produce annual statements on how the group can “promote diversity in its work and how it would recruit diverse membership.” In 2000, the board began allocating funding to research conducted specifically by racial minorities. ¹³

In 2001, ARNOVA published “Philanthropy in Communities of Color,” which researched and reported on philanthropic efforts in Black, Asian, Native American, and Latino communities. ¹⁴

In 2011, ARNOVA created a “Diversity Scholars and Leadership” program funded by the Kresge Foundation. ⁵

Finances

According to its 2023 tax forms, Association for Research on Nonprofit and Voluntary Associations earned $894,850 in revenue, with $455,758 coming from charitable contributions and most of the rest coming from member dues. That year, ARNOVA reported expenses of $1,003,242 and total assets of $573,207. ²

In 2015, ARNOVA received funding from the Institute for Philanthropy at Tsinghua University for professional development workshops. ⁵