A Qualitative Study of Nonprofit Leadership Roles in Using Funding Diversification as a Sustainable Strategy for Organizations' Survivability in California

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand nonprofit leaders' roles in utilizing funding diversification as a sustainable strategy for organizations' survival. To survive, nonprofit organizations rely on leaders’ roles and experiences to address issues such organizations might face. The targeted population was executive leaders in nonprofit organizations. The participants were board members and senior leadership team members of nonprofit organizations in San Diego. The understudied research questions include the central research question: How do nonprofit organizations' current policies influence funding diversification as a sustainability strategy? This study utilized phenomenological design. The resource dependency theory (RDT) guided this study to provide nonprofit leaders with a strategy for diversifying their funding to achieve and sustain the organizational mission. Leaders in nonprofit organizations might gain credible and contextualized information to enhance the quality of funding diversification decisions. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, surveys, and document analysis, and the transcripts of these data sources were coded using NVivo's 14 version. Ten themes were identified regarding nonprofit leadership using funding diversification as a sustainability strategy: (1) cooperation, (2) leaders' experiences, (3) leaders' engagement, (4) stakeholders' participation, (5) nonprofits challenges, and (6) stakeholders' significance, (7) leaders' attitudes, (8) ethical considerations, (9) policy influence, and (10) perceived benefits. The findings help nonprofit leaders and scholars gain insights into diversifying funding sources and fill the gaps created by previous studies in the field of public administration.