While the benefits of network membership are most apparent to smaller agencies that have low legitimacy and modest capacities to attract resources on their own, these agencies are also likely to experience the greatest costs. Larger, more visible agencies get less out of network involvement, but their costs are also likely to be lower. For instance, as Provan, Beyer, and Kruytbosch (1980) find, large agencies can exert influence over the United Way, often by threat agencies. Large agencies often have legitimacy that is well established, allowing them to exert influence in the community that may extend to United Way’s fundraising efforts. Thus, these agencies may be nearly as important to United Way as United Way is to the agency, minimizing the cost of affiliation. Assessing the value of network membership to these large, powerful agencies makes sense only if benefits, in the form of modest legitimacy and resource gains, are considered relative to costs, which will tend to be relatively low.