Managing the innovative capacity of voluntary and non-profit organizations in the provision of public services

This article considers the implications of recent research about the innovative capacity of voluntary and nonprofit organizations for their management by their organizational leaders. Its core points are that innovation has to be seen as one possible direction for the work of such organizations to follow, rather than being a defining characteristic of their work, and that the expectations of funders, and especially governmental funders, are as important in setting this direction as are the concerns of the organization itself.