Nonprofit Sector

The Nature of the Nonprofit Sector is a collection of insightful and influential classic and recent readings on the existence, forms, and functions of the nonprofit sector—the sector that sits between the market and government. The readings encompass a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines and cover everything from Andrew Carnegie’s turn-of-the-century philosophy of philanthropy to the most recent writings of current scholars and practitioners. Each of the text’s ten parts opens with a framing essay by the editors that provides an overview of the central themes and issues, as well as sometimes competing points of view. The fourth edition of this comprehensive volume includes both new and classic readings, as well as two new sections on the international NGO sector and theories about intersectoral relations. The Nature of the Nonprofit Sector, Fourth Edition is therefore an impressively up-to-date reader designed to provide students of nonprofit and public management with a thorough overview of this growing field.

“Timely, unique, and definitive . . . not only chronicles the history of the nonprofit sector but also provides a broad but critical analysis of its current state.” —Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation of New York The nonprofit sector has changed in fundamental ways in recent decades. As the sector has grown in scope and size, both domestically and internationally, the boundaries between for-profit, governmental, and charitable organizations have become intertwined. Nonprofits are increasingly challenged on their roles in mitigating or exacerbating inequality. And debates flare over the role of voluntary organizations in democratic and autocratic societies alike. The Nonprofit Sector takes up these concerns and offers a cutting-edge empirical and theoretical assessment of the state of the field. This book, now in its third edition, brings together leading researchers—economists, historians, philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists along with scholars from communication, education, law, management, and policy schools—to investigate the impact of associational life. Chapters consider the history of the nonprofit sector and of philanthropy; the politics of the public sphere; governance, mission, and engagement; access and inclusion; and global perspectives on nonprofit organizations. Across this comprehensive range of topics, The Nonprofit Sector makes an essential contribution to the study of civil society. Praise for previous editions “Takes a decidedly multidisciplinary approach . . . .invaluable.” —Journal of Policy Analysis and Management “A major contribution to the field.” —Social Forces

The growth of the non-profit, voluntary or third sector has been widely recognized throughout the world. This text seeks to provide a definition and a common classification of the non-profit sector, while recognizing the great diversity of voluntarism internationally.

Governments see not-for-profit agencies as an alternative mechanism for delivering public services. Activists see voluntary organizations as instruments of change. Analysts see community organizations as sources of trust and social cohesion. Despite these heady expectations, we know remarkably little about the not-for-profit sector in Canada. In this book a group of scholars respond to the need for basic research in this field, exploring the scope of the not-for-profit sector, the diverse roles that such organizations play, and their relationships with other sectors.

In recent years, the number of scholars doing research and teaching on the nonprofit sector, the number of research and teaching centers dedicated to it, and the number of books and journals focusing on the topic of nonprofit organizations have all grown significantly. Nonetheless, this is the first book that explicitly recognizes and emphasizes the role and behavior of the nonprofit sector in the mixed economy. The book's twelve chapters present a picture of the nonprofit sector and its relationship with other sectors of the mixed economy and analyze theoretically and empirically various aspects of this relationship. The book offers new perspectives on the role of nonprofit organizations vis-à-vis for-profit firms and government organizations, a theoretical reevaluation of the relationship between government expenditures and private contributions, and a critique of the econometric studies of the "crowd-in" and "crowd-out" issues. It presents new analysis of the relationship between government expenditures and competition between nonprofit organizations and for-profit firms and new results on the Pareto efficiency of philanthropy, offering comprehensive statistical information on key variables in nonprofit organizations in comparison with for-profit firms and government organizations in several countries.

Winner of the John Grenzebach Award from the American Association of Fund-Raising Council Trust for Philanthropy and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Philanthropy and voluntarism are among the most familiar and least understood of American institutions. The oldest American nonprofit corporation—Harvard College—dates from 1636, but most of the million or so nonprofits currently in existence were established after 1960. In "Inventing the Nonprofit Sector" and Other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations cultural historian Peter Dobkin Hall describes and analyzes the development of America's fastest growing institutional sector.

ÔThis volume addresses on several important topics that influence HRM in the nonprofit sector. By providing rich context and linking research to practice, it creates a foundation for those interested in advancing the art and science of human resources in voluntary organizations.Õ Ð Gary R. Kirk, Virginia Tech, US This impressive book assembles the latest research findings and thinking on the management of voluntary/nonprofit sector organizations and the effective utilization of both paid staff and volunteers. The authors expertly look into the challenges faced by this sector and the growing role that it plays in society. They review HRM in the voluntary sector and discuss the challenges of bringing about best practices, as well as suggesting how to improve leadership of voluntary/nonprofit organizations. Non-profit organizations serve several useful purposes in society and exist in every country in the world. Like organizations in other sectors, non-profit organizations now have to do more with less. This book indicates the ways in which human resource management policies and practices can improve the effectiveness of non-profit organizations. The authors consider the roles played by non-profit organizations IN effective leadership and its development, developing the non-profit brand, enhancing learning and skills development of both paid staff and volunteers and encouraging and supporting bring about organizational change. They also examine how university-based education programs are developing talent in the non-profit sector. This timely book will prove invaluable to academics and doctoral students interested in all aspects of management within the non-profit/voluntary sector. Government professionals working in this sector will also find this compendium insightful.