Collaboration between nonprofit and business sectors has been widely researched from the business perspective. To date, the literature on social alliances has not examined the models of conversion of capitals used by nonprofits in social alliances. To address this gap, we propose a theoretical framework based on Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital and the mechanisms of capital conversion. Since firms now must become more socially responsible through Corporate Social Responsibility, the traditional model of capital conversion for nonprofits has had to change to accomodate corporation and allied foundations as alternative sources of funding. Through alliances with firms, Nonprofit Organizations can convert their symbolic capital into economic capital, but in doing this, they run the risk of losing their symbolic capital as Environmental, Social and Governance organizations. Based on a cluster analysis and a multinomial probit regression, the preliminary findings indicate that NPOs have developed four models of conversion, two of which involving firms. The main explanatory factor for using one of these two models of conversion is the symbolic capital of nonprofits.
