Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Source Publication
Ecology and Evolution
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-3-2014
DOI
10.1002/ece3.1281
Abstract
The effectiveness of conservation organizations is determined in part by how they adapt to changing conditions. Over the previous decade, economic conditions in the United States (US) showed marked variation including a period of rapid growth followed by a major recession. We examine how biodiversity conservation nonprofits in the US responded to these changes through their financial behaviors, focusing on a sample of 90 biodiversity conservation nonprofits and the largest individual organization (The Nature Conservancy; TNC). For the 90 sampled organizations, an analysis of financial ratios derived from tax return data revealed little response to economic conditions. Similarly, more detailed examination of conservation expenditures and land acquisition practices of TNC revealed only one significant relationship with economic conditions: TNC accepted a greater proportion of conservation easements as donated in more difficult economic conditions. Our results suggest that the financial behaviors of US biodiversity conservation nonprofits are unresponsive to economic conditions.
Recommended Citation
Larson, E. R., Boyer, A. G., & Armsworth, P. R. (2014). A lack of response of the financial behaviors of biodiversity conservation nonprofits to changing economic conditions. Ecology and evolution, 4(23), 4429-4443. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1281
Submission Type
Publisher's Version
Comments
This article was published openly thanks to the University of Tennessee Open Publishing Support Fund.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.