Nonprofit organizations operate in environments characterized by institutional demands for legitimacy. The authors argue that, given this environment, corporate political strategy is critical to a nonprofit's ability to achieve its goals, gain access to resources, and achieve a sustainable advantage. The authors develop this thesis by providing a conceptual argument that corporate political strategy is critical given the institutional nature of the environment, the conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders, and the role of thefunder; and by providing contextual evidence of the role of corporate political strategy in nonprofit strategy.
N ONPROFIT organizations operate in an increasingly competitive environment. The basis of the competition is similar in many respects to that experienced in the for-profit sector as nonprofits compete for funds, users, and personnel as well as for influence and prestige (Greenberg, 1982). The literature on nonprofit strategy has demonstrated the increasing importance of organizational strategy in general as reflected in the number of articles that address strategic issues (Stone and Crittenden, 19941, and of competitive strategies in particular (see, for example, Greenberg, 1982;Kearns, 1992;Nielsen, 1986;Unterman and Davis, 1982;Wortman, 1981). At the same time, nonprofits operate in an increasingly political environment as evidenced by the pressures for accountability from government agencies (Smith and Lipsky, 1993) and the expectations regarding