Managing Nonprofit Strategic Tensions

This edited volume examines the strategic tensions faced by nonprofit and social-mission organizations as they seek to create social impact, scale their activities, and build organizational resilience. Bringing together perspectives from strategic management and nonprofit research, the book explores how nonprofit organizations navigate competing demands and paradoxical tensions related to impact creation and measurement, growth and scaling, inter-organizational collaboration, ecosystem strategy, resource scarcity, governance, mission preservation, and organizational capabilities. The contributors show how to manage these tensions constructively through a strategic mindset that balances social mission with the realities of organizational development and resource constraints. Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, empirical research, and diverse case studies, the volume offers both conceptual insights and practical guidance for scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students interested in strategic management, nonprofits, social innovation, and the social economy.