Existing studies assume that the value of political connections is homogeneous to different types of nonprofits and seldom consider their interplay with other accountability mechanisms. Based on a multilevel analysis of 2,085 foundations in China, this study builds and tests a theoretical framework of the contingent value of political connections to nonprofits, treating transparency as a moderator for the relationship between political connections and donations. Our findings suggest that while transparency is positively associated with the amount of donations obtained by foundations, political connections can help foundations obtain more donations only when their transparency score is higher than a certain threshold.
School Authors: Allen Fawcett, Gokul Iyer, Alicia Zhao
Other Authors: John Bistline, Aaron Bergman, Geoffrey Blanford, Maxwell Brown, Dallas Burtraw, Maya Domeshek, Anne Hamilton, Jesse Jenkins, Ben King, Hannah Kolus, Amanda Levin, Qian Luo, Kevin Rennert, Molly Robertson, Nicholas Roy, Ethan Russell, Daniel Shawhan, Daniel Steinberg, Anna van Brummen, Grace Van Horn, Aranya Venkatesh, John Weyant, Ryan Wiser