Marcus Lam’s research focuses on identifying strategies for the sustainability of health and human service nonprofit organizations. Specifically, his program of research advances two interrelated domains:
1) the effect of organizational and environmental factors on nonprofit sustainable resources; and
2) the influence of resources on organizational programs, services, and client outcomes.
Prior to joining the University of San Diego School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES), Dr. Lam was on faculty at the Columbia School of Social Work in New York City. Dr. Lam has also served as a senior research associate at the UCLA Center for Civil Society and has published reports on the state of the nonprofit sector in Los Angeles, the state of arts and culture funding in Los Angeles, as well as methodological chapters in the Global Civil Society Yearbook. He has also held fellowship positions with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, Los Angeles Program and EMES European Research Network on social enterprises and the social economy.
Scholarly Work
Lam, M. & Grasse, N.J. (2019). Community Health Centers (CHCs) Under Environmental Uncertainty: An Examination of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 and Early Medicaid Expansion on CHC Margin. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 10(2), 1-15.
Lam, M. & Beatty, B. (2020). Budgeting and Financial Management: A Multi-year Budgeting Approach. In. H.K. Anheier & S. Toepler, Routledge Companion to Nonprofit Management. London, U.K.: Routledge
Grasse, N. & Lam, M. (2020). Financing Canadian Charities: The condition beneifts of revenue diversification. In S. Phillips & B. Wyatt (Eds.), Intersections and Innovations: Change for Canada’s Voluntary and Nonprofit Sector. Alberta, CN: Muttart Foundation.
Grasse, N.J., Lam, M. & Neely, D.G. (under contract) International Perspectives on Nonprofit Financial Health. London, UK: Routledge. (authors listed in alphabetical order)
Lam, M. & McDougle, L. (2016). Community variation in the financial health of human service nonprofits: An examination of organizational and contextual effects. Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/0899764015591365
Lam, M., & Grusky, O. (2015) Individual and Organizational Characteristics of Effective Frontline Practitioner Performance: A Study of Los Angeles County HIV Testing Organizations. Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services, 14(1), 3-25.