1.1 Background
There are over 25,000 registered charities currently operating in New Zealand (Charities Commission, 2010). At approximately one charity for every 172 citizens this is one of the highest ratios in the world (Table 1) and the “overcrowded charity market” (Shepheard, 2010) is frequently criticised by the press for its perceived wasteful duplication.
The purpose of this research study was to investigate the most effective range of incentives which could be used by foundations and trusts to encourage collaboration between not-for-profit organisations in New Zealand.
The academic literature was examined to determine a wide range of possible incentives and subsequent field interviews with senior executives from foundations and charities examined whether the identified incentives were appropriate for use in the not-for-profit sector in New Zealand.
1.2 Research Aim
The aim of the research was to address the research question “which of the incentives that are used to encourage effective collaboration internationally are most likely to be successful when applied by philanthropic trusts to their work with charities in New Zealand?” and specifically test the hypothesis that “in the long term, non-financial incentives have the potential to be more effective than financial incentives in encouraging collaboration between New Zealand charities”.