Implementing Domestic Violence Policy: When Accountability Trumps Mission

Abstract

Nonprofit and governmental relations become increasingly formidable with a nonprofit’s number of public funding streams. Complexity of conflicting funding regulations traps the nonprofit in a state of dysfunction. Interviews with managers currently working in domestic violence advocacy organizations (DVAOs) in the United States are analyzed with a grounded analysis approach to identify the outcome of policy conflict tied to their multiple public funding streams. An unspoken policy narrative emerges that underlies more overt social policy narratives. This emergent narrative drives organizational activities toward accountability tasks and away from mission fulfillment tasks. DVAOs are bound within institutional gridlock.