Most nonprofit organizations state their purpose in mission statements that explain what they consider to be good and worthwhile. However, different people within these organizations might not always agree on what is truly good.

Research from Syracuse University aimed to figure out why various nonprofit mission statements hold different moral values and how these values relate to the political beliefs of the people who started these organizations.

Determining the direction

The researchers studied more than 50,000 new nonprofit groups by analyzing their written statements using computer tools. They identified five main moral values – caring, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity – that were present in these statements. Then, they checked the political party preferences of the founders by using data on their voter registrations. They looked at whether the language in the mission statements matched these moral values.

This study is notable for its large size and for focusing on how the personal political leanings of the founders are linked to the values expressed in the nonprofit groups they start. This brings fresh insights into a field that hasn’t been explored much before.

The researchers found interesting differences in how nonprofit groups connected to different political parties talk about morals. For instance, those led by conservatives often mentioned ideas related to keeping things sacred, while those led by liberals talked more about fairness.

Political differences

However, there was something new in their findings. Liberals also talked about loyalty and authority, while conservatives focused on caring. The researchers think this might be because conservatives usually believe that community groups should handle social problems, while liberals think the government should take charge. The emphasis on loyalty among liberals might be due to groups like labor unions.

In real situations, these different moral beliefs, which can be quite different even among nonprofits in the same area, can lead to organizations taking very different approaches to solving problems like homelessness. One group might believe in quickly providing housing without many conditions, while another might think that people should make certain changes before getting housing.

“We think our research helps to shift the conversation about the ‘moral’ side of organizational emergence toward a more nuanced approach,” the researchers conclude. “We laid out a number of research directions to help advance work in this area based on our findings.”