| Facing societal pressure to engage in socially responsible activities, businesses increasingly collaborate with nonprofit organizations to address social and environmental issues. The cognitive models of business-nonprofit collaborators often determine the social impact of the collaboration. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the sensemaking dimensions of nonprofit CSR engagements with businesses. Grounded in corporate social responsibility theory, stakeholder theory, and sensemaking theory, the study addressed the cognitive models that influenced community-based nonprofit organizational leaders (NPOLs) as they addressed social concerns collaboratively with businesses. Data gathering involved face-to-face semistructured interviews with 20 leaders from community-based nonprofit organizations in Illinois, using open-ended interview questions. The data analysis process, modeled after an approach developed by Colaizzi, revealed several themes regarding the mental frameworks that shape NPOLs' thinking, motivation, and behavior as they collaborate with businesses. Nonprofit organizational leaders viewed businesses giving back to local communities as an important corporate social responsibility. Enhancing the scale and impact of their organizational work motivated NPOLs to collaborate with businesses. The research findings may contribute to social change by improving business leaders' efforts to collaborate with NPOLs that represent a cognitive fit. Reducing ideological conflicts within business-nonprofit CSR engagements should enhance CSR outcomes in local communities. |
