of organizational practices. Integrating concepts of managerialism, professionalism, marketization, and organizational democracy, it examines their effects on nonprofits’ performance and societal contributions. Recent large-scale and comparative studies suggest that professional management can strengthen resilience, service delivery, advocacy, and community building – contrary to longstanding fears – while democratic practices remain crucial for inclusiveness and civic engagement. Rather than a simple trade-off, the evidence points to complementarities between managerial and participatory logics. The article concludes that what matters is not whether nonprofits professionalize, but how they do so: aligning managerial tools with participatory structures and contextual demands enables nonprofits to combine efficiency with democracy, structure with openness, and resilience with societal value.

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/npf-2025-0058/html