Survival strategies: how social service non-profits succeed and fail in the public arena (a case study of sexual assault and domestic violence centers)

This study will examine the following question: How and why do social service agencies survive and in some cases even flourish in the early stages of development?

To answer the question, this research will create a new theory of social service nonprofit survival. It will advance the literature by (1) giving a complete picture of all the relevant, important techniques of survival; (2)demonstrating which factors are significant during different phases of the early evolution of an agency; (3) illustrating these techniques by examining the experiences of sexual assault and domestic violence centers; and (4) contending, contrary to Salamon's theory, that the foundation of the government-nonprofit partnership is not nonprofit failure.