Understanding Nonprofit–Nonprofit Collaborations: Insight From Voluntary Failure Theory

This study examines how nonprofit organizations collaborate using the Voluntary Failure Theory (VFT) proposed by Salamon (1987). VFT explains nonprofit-government collaborations to overcome the inherent limitations of nonprofits, such as philanthropic insufficiency, particularism, paternalism, and amateurism. However, nonprofits also partner with other nonprofit organizations to address these limitations and strengthen service capacity. To empirically test VFT's applicability to nonprofit–nonprofit collaboration, this study uses secondary survey data from Incheon, South Korea, collected by the Incheon Institute. Findings reveal that philanthropic insufficiency and paternalism positively influence nonprofit collaboration, while amateurism negatively affects it. These results underscore the importance of considering sectoral limitations when examining collaborative practices among nonprofits.