“Crisis After Crisis After …: What About the Third Sector?”is the aptly chosen title and guiding question of this year’s 16th ISTR conference in Antwerp, Belgium. Nonprofits, social enterprises and other parts of the third sector have many responsibilities during crises. They contribute to societal stability by forming rapid reactions and scaling of services during crises (e.g., rapid influx of refugees, COVID) and facilitating and de-risking civic engagement in adverse environments – at the same time, third-sector actors themselves are increasingly under pressure in shrinking civic spaces, while their services are in more demand than ever.

The NPO&SE Competence Center is part of the discussion with research presentations on how individual adversity affects social entrepreneurs’ organizing and success (Peter Vandor), how organisations can assess their social innovation capacity (Reinhard Millner), the effect of voluntary community services on students career aspirations (Paul Rameder), the relationship between nonprofit governance and financial stability (Christian Grünhaus), and on the effect of role models on climate action and climate anxiety (Peter Vandor, Martin Mehrwald, Fabian Hobodites) – and of course the conference Keynote by Michael Meyer on “Professional Organizing in Times of Crises: Selling your Soul or Boosting your Resilience?"

We are grateful to ISTR for facilitating this fruitful exchange!