To Be Experienced or to Be Innovative? Signals Influencing Nonprofit Start-Ups’ Philanthropic Funding Acquisition
研究非营利初创企业如何通过创始人经验和组织创新性两种信号获取慈善资金，发现经验较少但参加过加速器的创始人更易获资，而自称创新的组织反而不利。
Prior research has illuminated how emerging and new nonprofit organizations struggle to garner financial resources, including philanthropic funding. Yet, few studies have examined how nonprofit start-ups are able to overcome this “liability of newness” and struggle to secure philanthropic funding. This article uses signaling theory to examine how two types of quality signals emanating from a start-up nonprofit’s initial assets—founders’ experience and organizations’ innovativeness—affect the organization’s philanthropic funding acquisition outcomes. We find that philanthropic funding is more likely to flow to nonprofit organizations with founders who have less prior founding experience and with prior accelerator experience but less likely to flow to organizations that are self-identified as innovative. We conclude with recommendations for nonprofit practitioners and policymakers regarding signaling strategies and infrastructure support.