Voluntary Sector Review
An international journal of third sector research, policy and practice
Voluntary Sector Review is published by Policy Press in association with the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN). It publishes accessible, high-quality peer-reviewed papers on all aspects of the voluntary, community, civil society and third sectors.
A unique feature of Voluntary Sector Review is the combination of papers aimed at academic, policy and practice audiences. This is designed to ensure that the results of the latest academic research are made available to the widest possible audience and are grounded in a close engagement with both policy and practical issues. Read more about Voluntary Sector Review.
Impact Factor: 0.8 Frequency: March, July and November
Volume 15 (2024): Issue 2 (Jul 2024)
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Be one of the first to publish in this new journal advancing critical feminist scholarship on justice.
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Be one of the first to publish in this new journal advancing critical feminist scholarship on justice.
Aims and scope
Abstracting and indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Best Article Prize
Testimonials
Contact us
Aims and scope
Voluntary Sector Review is published by Policy Press in association with the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN). It publishes accessible, high-quality peer-reviewed papers on all aspects of the voluntary, community, civil society and third sectors. A unique feature of Voluntary Sector Review is the combination of papers aimed at academic, policy and practice audiences. This is designed to ensure that the results of the latest academic research are made available to the widest possible audience and are grounded in a close engagement with both policy and practical issues.
Voluntary Sector Review is an explicitly interdisciplinary and international journal – the first to be European based. We welcome contributions from authors from all disciplines and all countries. We are interested in all aspects of voluntary, community, civil society and third-sector activity.
The scope of submissions includes, but is not limited to, such topics as the origins and nature of volunteering, the experiences of user groups, social activism, social movements, philanthropy, the growth and performance of charitable foundations, community organisations, social enterprises, and the relationship between voluntary organisations and the state.
Rigorous and stimulating, Voluntary Sector Review is an indispensable tool for everyone who values empirically grounded, theoretically informed and policy-relevant analyses of the past, present and future of voluntary action.
Abstracting and indexing
Voluntary Sector Review is abstracted in:
- Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
- European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)
- International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
- Scopus
- Social Care Online
- The Third Sector Knowledge Portal
- Proquest bibliographic databases
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change.
Best Voluntary Sector Review Article Prize
We are delighted to announce that Ilia Gugenishvili and Jonas Colliander have won the 2024 Best Voluntary Sector Review Article Prize for their article;
The prize panel felt that this was a theoretically and methodologically rigorous paper whilst also having a clear acknowledgement of the limitations. It clearly set out implications for theory and for practice, and despite the density of the theoretical framework and the technicality of the methods it was easy to follow and effort was put into clearly communicating key insights throughout. It should pave the way for future research in this area.
To celebrate Policy Press has made the article free to read for the rest of 2024
The winning article was announced at the 2024 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research conference at City, University of Londo. This award is sponsored by the VSSN and Policy Press. Winners receive a £150 cash prize from VSSN and £150 in book vouchers from Policy Press.
Testimonials
“As an academic I am forced to be selective when it comes to reading, and I often choose to spend the time I have reading contributions to the Voluntary Sector Review.”
Adalbert Evers, Senior Fellow, Heidelberg University, Germany
“Voluntary Sector Review publishes outstanding research for academic, policy and practice audiences. I especially appreciate VSR’s efforts to publish work from a variety of research paradigms and perspectives.”
Angela M. Eikenberry, Professor of Public Administration, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
Contact us
Editorial enquiries:
The Voluntary Sector Review office: VSRoffice@vssn.org.uk
Open Access, subscriptions and free trials:
Policy Press: pp-journals@bristol.ac.uk
Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following:
What are we looking for?
How to submit
Ethical guidelines
Copyright
Style
Alt-text
References
English language editing service
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us
Visit our journal author toolkit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.
What are we looking for?
Research articles: Normally no longer than 8,000 words, including abstract (150 words maximum), notes, tables, figures and references.
Articles may cover research and analysis of any part of the voluntary sector or the third sector and civil society more generally and may include scholarly enquiry, research findings and applied analysis of relevance to practitioners and decision makers. Contributions about research methods, especially those aimed at improving third sector research practice, are also welcome. A research article is more likely to be accepted for publication if it:
- Starts with a clear statement of the issue that it addresses, together with an explanation of why the issue is of interest to and important for readers of Voluntary Sector Review;
- Embeds the issue it addresses in the relevant literature, reviewing the most important and influential previous work that bears directly on it;
- As appropriate, sets out the theoretical perspective or policy context or practice environment that informs the article;
- Where empirical findings are reported, describes the sample design, primary or secondary data collection methods and analysis techniques used in sufficient detail for the reader to be able to understand how to the study might be replicated;
- Where prior literature rather than, or as well as, empirical study provides the basis for the article, explains how that literature was selected and reviewed;
- Systematically sets out the key findings relevant to the issue addressed in the article, relating them to previous work covered in the literature review;
- Identifies to what extent and in what ways the findings and discussion contribute to new empirical knowledge about and/or better theoretical understanding of the voluntary sector;
- Considers the limitations of the study and the implications these have for the conclusions;
- Teases out the implications for future research, policy or practice;
- Considers whether there are implications for countries beyond that which is the primary focus of the article.
Policy and Practice papers: up to 4,000 words, including abstract (75 words maximum), keywords and references.
Policy and practice papers are short contributions from researchers, policy makers and practitioners discussing policy developments, research findings or practical insights that will be of relevance and value for policy makers and practitioners. For more information read our Guide to preparing policy and practice papers.
Research notes: 2,000–4,000 words.
Research notes may follow a less strict paper structure than full papers but still need to make a contribution to voluntary sector studies. They must have an abstract, use standard referencing and their formatting must adhere to the style set out below.
Research notes are scientifically valid research outputs that cannot be considered as full research or methodology articles. Research notes can present intriguing initial and/or time-sensitive observations or a novel idea, advance a new idea, theoretical perspective, methodological approach or data or publish a brief summary of a study that is usually difficult to publish (e.g. with non-significant results), or any other scientific contribution in a short format.
The aim of research notes is to encourage debate in voluntary sector studies. Therefore, when writing a research note, it is important that the author(s) are clear on what kind of contribution they want to make to the field of voluntary sector studies, that they present a clear argument and that they bring in a novel view to the attention of the journal’s readers. The role of the research note is thus to serve as a form of incubator for new thinking in the field of voluntary sector studies. Research notes can also be invited by the editorial team.
In general, research notes will be peer reviewed using following criteria: suitability for the VSR, contribution to the field, scientific rigour, strength and clarity of the argument, urgency and international relevance.
Comment and Debate papers: up to 2,000 words (no abstract)
The Comment and Debate section is designed to enable authors from policy, practice and academia to contribute to topical debates in a more responsive way by, for example: commenting on key policy developments affecting the voluntary sector and volunteering; commenting on current debates in practice (including media/social media) associated with the voluntary sector and volunteering; provoking new debates within and between academics, practitioners and policy makers on issues and challenges affecting the voluntary sector and volunteering. Comment and debate pieces should be academically informed but policy and practice relevant and speak directly to the concerns of the sector in a way that is accessible and amenable to public debate.
To facilitate a quick turn around these papers will not be subject to external peer review but will receive rigorous scrutiny and comment from at least two members of the Editorial Team.
Book reviews:
Books for review should be sent to:
Eddy Hogg, Book Reviews Editor, Voluntary Sector Review, Room CNE 110, Cornwallis North East SSPSSR, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF.
Tel: +44 (0) 1227 82 7328. Email: E.Hogg@kent.ac.uk
In all sections, contributions are welcome from the UK, and also from Europe and beyond, especially if they include cross-national comparisons that bear on the UK experience.
All submissions will be subject to normal peer-review processes. The editorial team aim to provide quick decisions and to ensure that submission to publication takes no more than 12 months.
How to submit
All submissions should be made online at the Voluntary Sector Review Editorial Manager website: http://www.editorialmanager.com/vsr/default.aspx.
Editorial Manager
Manuscripts must be in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.
Preparing your anonymised manuscript
Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:
- A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 150 words), up to five key words/short phrases and the article word count including references. A cover page template is available to download here.
- A fully anonymised manuscript which does not include any of the information included in the cover page. It should not include any acknowledgements, funding details or conflicts of interest that would identify the author(s). References to the author's own work should be anonymised as follows: 'Author's own, [year]'. Please note that submissions that have not been sufficiently anonymised will be returned.
- If you have any figures and tables please upload them as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate.
- Alt text: In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.
For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.
Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version.
Checklist: what to include in your final, accepted non-anonymised manuscript
- A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract (up to 150 words), up to five key words and the word count.
- Funding details: list any funding including the grant numbers you have received for the research covered in your article as follows: 'This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].'
- Conflict of interest statement: please declare any possible conflicts of interest, or state 'The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest' if there are none. Find out more about declaring conflicts of interest in the Bristol University Press/ Policy Press Ethical Guidelines.
- Acknowledgements: acknowledge those who have provided you with any substantial assistance or advice with collecting data, developing your ideas, editing or any other comments to develop your argument or text.
- Figures and tables: should be included as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. For advice about less common file formats, please contact bup-journalsproduction@bristol.ac.uk
- Alt text: In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.
- Supplemental data: We recommend that any supplemental data are hosted in a data repository (such as figshare) for maximum exposure, and are cited as a reference in the article.
- Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement: Please upload a scanned copy of the completed and signed agreement with your final non-anonymised manuscript. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.
Ethical guidelines
At Policy Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards of review and publication ethics in our journals. Policy Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidelines.
Find out more about our ethical guidelines.
Copyright and permissions
Voluntary Sector Review is published by Policy Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Policy Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other original copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.
Authors will be asked to sign a Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the agreement. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.
Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Policy Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.
To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in Voluntary Sector Review, please email: bup-permissions@bristol.ac.uk.
For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.
Style
- British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
- Non-discriminatory language is mandatory. See our guidelines to sensitive language (appendix C of document).
- Explanatory notes should be kept to a minimum. If it is necessary to use them, they must be numbered consecutively in the text and listed at the end of the article. Please do not embed notes in the text.
- Please do not embed bibliographic references in the text, footnotes, live links or macros; the final submitted file should be clear of track changes and ready for print.
- Tables and charts should be separated from the text and submitted in a Word or Excel file, with their placement in the text clearly indicated by inserting: ‘Table X here’. Please provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
- Figures, diagrams and maps should be separated from the text and, ideally, submitted in an Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file. Figures created in Word or Excel are acceptable in those file formats. If the figures, diagrams and maps are in other formats (i.e. have been pasted into a Word file rather than created in it) please contact bup-journalsproduction@bristol.ac.uk for advice. Please indicate where figures should be placed in the text, by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
Alt-text
In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. See our guidance on writing alt-text.
References
Download the Endnote output style for Policy Press and Bristol University Press Journals.
Policy Press uses a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:
- In-text citations: give the author’s surname followed by year of publication in brackets;
- If there is more than one reference to the same author and year, this should be distinguished by a, b, c, d and so on being added to the year.
- In lists of references given within the text, place in chronological order, from old to new. For example (Smith, 1989; Jones, 1990; Amler, 2002; Brown, 2007).
- List all references in full at the end of the article and remove any references not cited in the text;
- Names should be listed in the references as cited, for example, surnames containing de, De, de la, Le, van, von, Van, Von should be listed under ‘D’, ‘L’ and ‘V’ respectively. If in doubt, check the author ORCID or a recognised database such as Scopus or Web of Science to verify their most known surname.
- For works with multiple authors, list all names up to six. For works with more than six authors, list the first six names followed by ‘et al’.
- Book and journal titles should be in italics;
- Website details should be placed at the end of the reference;
- Ibid/op cit: please do not use; we would prefer that you repeated the information.
- Immediately before submitting your final version, check that all references cited in the text are in the reference list and that references in the reference list are cited correctly in the text.
Examples
Book:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Darling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists, Bristol: Policy Press.
Book with editor:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (eds) (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, 5th edn, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Chapter in book or in multi-authored publication:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Citizenship in action: the lived experiences of citizens with dementia who campaign for social change, in R. Smith, R. Means and K. Keegan (eds) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers, pp 305–26.
Journal reference:
Williamson, E. and Abrahams, H. A. (2014) A review of the provision of intervention programmes for female victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the UK, Journal of Women and Social Work, 29(1): 178-191. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886109913516452
Jeffrey, C., Williams, E., de Araujo, P., Fortin-Rochberg, R., O'Malley, T., Hill, A-M., et al (2009) The challenge of politics, Policy & Politics, 36(4): 545–57. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886108913516454
Website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse?, https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.
Editorial Management Board
Angela Ellis-Paine, Chair of Editorial Boards, City St George’s, University London, UK
Daiga Kamerāde, Managing Editor; University of Salford, UK
James Rees, Co-Editor; University of Wolverhampton, UK
Lili Wang, Co-Editor; Arizona State University, USA
Carl Milofsky, Consulting Editor; Bucknell University, USA
Alison Body, Policy and Practice Editor; University of Kent, UK
Iwona Nowakowska, Policy and Practice Editor; Maria Grzegorzewska Academy of Special Education, Poland
Eddy Hogg, Book Reviews Editor; University of Kent, UK
Diarmuid McDonnell, Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) Representative, University of the West of Scotland, UK
Georg von Schnurbein, Regional Editorial Advisor - Europe; Universität Basel, Switzerland
David Wallace-Hare, Social Media Editor, University of Exeter, UK
Liz Bailey, University of York, UK
Cari Bottois, Cardiff University, UK
Jo Crotty, Edge Hill University, UK
Caitlin McMullin, Aalborg University, Denmark
International Editorial Advisory Board
René Bekkers, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Bronwen Dalton, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Angela Eikenberry, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA
Adalbert Evers, Heidelberg University, Germany
Lucas Meijs, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Marthes Nyssens, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Oto Potluka, University of Basel, Switzerland
Raffaella Rametta, University of Teramo, Italy
Steven Rathgeb Smith, American Political Science Association, USA
Annette Zimmer, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany
Special issue call for papers - Unravelling Smaller Organisations: Building a Research-Based Understanding of a Critical Part of the Voluntary Sector
Submission deadline: 30 September 2024
The unique nature and considerable contribution of smaller UK registered charities to civil society, particularly at the local level, has been widely recognised (see in particular Dayson et al., 2018, 2021, 2023). However, despite the ever-growing demands on their services from both beneficiaries and the public sector, it is feared that current societal and political changes, especially altered public spending models, risk leaving such organisations behind. In particular, there is a lack of appreciation for, and understanding of, the idiosyncrasies of smaller UK charities: this harms their ability to access funding and participate in cross-sector partnerships, weakening the impact they have on communities and strengthening the monopoly of larger organisations (see for example Chapman, 2019, Gioacchino, 2019).
An awareness of these difficulties has led to pleas for an increased theoretical understanding of smaller UK charities, generally understood as those whose income lies below £1 million (Ravenscroft, 2017; Gioacchino, 2019; Dayson et al., 2023). Such a foundation is indeed missing: a limited amount of peer-reviewed research and working papers relates directly to smaller charities and non-registered groups, but information about smaller UK charities tends to often be statistical, contained within descriptive reports or practice-focused research studies written chiefly in collaboration with funders, or to lie ‘below the radar’ (see for example Chapman, 2019; Cairns et al., 2021; TSRC, 2024). Despite an acknowledgement of the unique nature and thus unique challenges of smaller charities over a quarter of a century ago by Rochester (1999) therefore remains considerable scope for more high-quality, in-depth research into smaller charities in the UK.
On an international level, the responses of smaller voluntary sector organisations to disasters (see for example Chen, 2021, Chandrasekhar et al., 2022) and their involvement with democratic systems (Chen et al., 2013; Chen, 2018) have been variously discussed, as has the concept of leadership (Euclid, 2024). They are often included in more general discussions as a comparison to larger organisations (see for example Mion et al., 2023, Richardson et al., 2023, Wiepking & de Wit, 2023), including in meta-studies (see for example von Schnurbein et al,. 2018, Nordin et al., 2024). The research projects of authors such as Cnaan and Milofsky and the research network at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics also contribute theoretical insight into smaller change-making, valued-based organisations which sit on the boundaries between multiple stakeholders and interests and are embedded within their local communities. A wider body of detailed scholarship is lacking, however, particularly outside of North America.
With this Special Issue of Voluntary Sector Review, we want to start closing this gap in knowledge by encouraging world-class research into smaller voluntary organisations. In keeping with previous literature, we concentrate on organisations with lower levels of income, but are keen for papers to focus on organisational characteristics above and beyond finances, and to offer both theoretical insight and practice-based conclusions. We wish in particular to explore organisations both internally and within their wider ecosystems and would be especially interested in papers which consider organisations which exist outside of formal registration and reporting requirements. In order to grow multi-sectoral scholarship around smaller voluntary sector organisations, we welcome papers from authors from a wide variety of specialisms. International perspectives and those of a comparative nature are also strongly encouraged.
We will accept papers which develop or test hypotheses using qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods, and would be particularly pleased to receive papers focused on policy and practice, as well as Comment and Debate papers (for an explanation of this type of paper see here). Possible topics to investigate include but are not limited to:
- The relationships between smaller voluntary sector organisations and other societal actors, including for-profit institutions, public bodies and local actors and stakeholders, and their consequences for stakeholders.
- The influence of the founder and other key people in smaller voluntary sector organisations upon the organisation’s development and reach.
- The internal culture and governance of smaller voluntary sector organisations: how do these aspects develop, how do they reflect an organisation’s wider environment, and what do they mean in terms of risks and opportunities in both the short- and long-term?
- The development and purpose of networks between small voluntary sector organisations.
- Voluntary sector organisations without employees: what is the impact of having no paid workforce on an organisation’s survival and influence?
- The blurring of logics and practices within smaller voluntary sector organisations as a result of the trend towards more corporate-like models: what are the idiosyncrasies of these organisations which influence such change and what impact does it have upon the relationships between the organisations and their beneficiaries?
- The consequences of various public sector funding models upon smaller voluntary sector organisations’ service provision and longer-term viability.
If you are interested in submitting a paper proposal for this Special Issue, please email a 600-word abstract, outlining the article’s contents, including its methodology and fit with this Special Issue, alongside a 50-word author biographical statement, to kathryn.adams@stud.uni-heidelberg.de. All submissions must be received by 30 September 2024, following which the guest-editors will invite selected proposers to submit a full article through the Voluntary Sector Review submission system. This will then be subject to the journal’s usual double-blind peer review procedures. Invitation to submit a full article does not guarantee publication, and all decisions are ultimately those of the journal editors. The deadline for full papers will be 30 June 2025. If you have any questions about potential submissions, please contact the Special Issue editors via kathryn.adams@stud.uni-heidelberg.de.
References
Cairns, B., Firth, L. & Hopgood, R. (2021). The Holy Grail of Funding: Why and How Foundations Give Unrestricted Funding, London: Institute for Voluntary Action Research.
Chandrasekhar, D., García, I., Khajehei, S. (2022). Recovery Capacity of Small Nonprofits in Post-2017 Hurricane Puerto Rico, Journal of the American Planning Association, 88(2), 206–219.
Chapman, T. (2019). The Social Process of Supporting Small Charities: An Evaluation of the Lloyds Bank Foundation Grow Pilot Programme, Lloyds Bank Foundation.
Chen, K. K. (2018). Interorganizational Advocacy Among Nonprofit Organizations in Strategic Action Fields: Exogenous Shocks and Local Responses, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(4S), 97-118.
Chen, K. K., Lune, H. & Queen, E. L. (2013). How Values Shape and Are Shaped by Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations: The Current State of the Field, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(5), 856-885.
Chen, X. (2021). Nonprofit Financial Resilience: Recovery from Natural Disasters, Voluntas, 32(5), 1009– 1026.
Cnaan, R. A. & Milofsky, C. (1997). Small Religious Nonprofits: Supplementary Issues, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Cnaan, R. A. & Milofsky, C. (2018). Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations in the 21st Century. Springer International.
Dayson, C., Baker., L. & Rees, J. (2018). The Value of Small, Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research.
Dayson, C., Baker, L., Rees, J., Bennett, E., Patmore, B., Turner, K., Jacklin-Jarvis, C. & Terry, V. (2021). The Value of Small in a Big Crisis, Lloyds Bank Foundation.
Dayson, C., Bennett, E., Damm, C., Rees, J., Jacklin Jarvis, C., Patmore, B., Baker, L., Terry, V. & Turner, K. (2023). The Distinctiveness of Smaller Voluntary Organisations Providing Welfare Services, Journal of Social Policy, 52(4), 800-820.
Euclid (March 2024). EU3 Leader: Essential Reading, available at https://euclidnetwork.eu/portfolio-posts/eu3leader/
Gioacchino, G. (2019). Supporting the Essence of Small and Medium-Sized UK Charities, K4D Helpdesk.
Milofsky, C. (2008). Smallville: Institutionalizing Community in Twenty-First-Century-America, Medford, MA: Tufts University Press.
Mion, G., Vigolo, V., Bonfanti, A. & Tessari, R. (2023). The Virtuousness of Ethical Networks: How to Foster Virtuous Practices in Nonprofit Organizations, Journal of Business Ethics, 188, 107-123.
Nordin, N., Khatibi, A. & Azam, S. M. F. (2024). Nonprofit Capacity and Social Performance: Mapping the Field and Future Directions, Management Review Quarterly, 74, 171-225.
Ravenscroft, C. (2017). Facing Forward. How Small and Medium-Sized Charities can Adapt to Survive, Lloyds Bank Foundation & Evidential Consulting.
Richardson, S., Kelly, S. J. & Gillespie, N. (2023). How Can Nonprofit Boards Innovate for Growth? An Integrative-Systematic Review, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 34, 35-38.
Rochester, C. (1999). Juggling on a Unicycle: A Handbook for Small Voluntary Agencies, Centre for Voluntary Organisations, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. TSRC (March 2024).
Third Sector Research Centre Research Output, available at: https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/organisations/third-sector-research-centre/publications/?type=%2Fdk%2Fatira%2Fpure%2Fre%20searchoutput%2Fresearchoutputtypes%2Fworkingpaper%2Fworkingpaper
von Schnurbein, G., Perez, M. & Gehringer, T. (2018). Nonprofit Comparative Research: Recent Agendas and Future Trends, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29(3), 437-453.
Wiepking, P. & de Wit, A. (2023). Unrestricted Funding and Nonprofit Capacities: Developing a Conceptual Model, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 1-24.
Recommend the journal to your librarian
Your opinion matters to your librarian; faculty recommendations are one of the main factors in a library’s decision to take out a journal subscription. If you want your library to subscribe to the Voluntary Sector Review, contact your librarian and recommend the journal. You can support your recommendation by including details of research projects and teaching modules that would benefit from a subscription.
Set up a free trial
All of our journals can be trialled for three months by institutions.
Set up a free trial for your institution.
Institutional subscriptions
We offer a range of subscription models for all of our journals. See our purchasing options page to learn more.
Subscribe to journal collection or package and save on list prices. Learn more about our packages and collections.
Personal subscriptions
Order a personal print subscription of Voluntary Sector Review.
2023 Impact Factor: 0.8
2023 Journal Citation Indicator: 0.51
Ranking: 139/263 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (Q3)
2023 Scopus CiteScore: 2.0
Ranking: 223/604 in Social Sciences (miscellaneous) – 63rd percentile
We are a leading social science publisher
committed to making a difference.
Bristol University Press and
Policy Press
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk