Relying heavily on contractors can cut attendance by 27% for museums, theaters and other arts nonprofits

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Hala Altamimi , University of Kansas and Qiaozhen Liu , Florida Atlantic University

(THE CONVERSATION) Many nonprofits face growing pressure from their donors and other funders to do more with less as their costs rise and their budgets don’t keep up . One way these organizations are responding is by trying to save money on their staffing by hiring contractors, consultants and temporary staff instead of full-time employees.

But those flexible labor arrangements can have drawbacks.

We are two nonprofit management scholars . We analyzed data collected from 2008-2018 that was drawn from 7,838 museums, theaters, community arts centers and other arts and cultural