At a time when boundaries between the nonprofit, business, and public sectors have grown increasingly confused and contested, this volume by leading experts on nonprofit organizations offers new ideas and frameworks for understanding the terrain that lies between the state and the market. The chapters span a broad range of emerging issues including nonprofit commercialism, sector-bending hybrid organizational forms, increasingly sophisticated nonprofit advocacy activities, newly hatched forms of volunteerism and philanthropy, tensions in public-nonprofit contracting, and new roles for faith-based nonprofits in social provision.Contents include: Peter Frumkin, ""Charity and Philanthropy After September 11th""; Joseph M. Knippenberg, ""Faith, Hype, and Charity: Constitutional Controversies over Charitable Choice""; Leslie Lenkowsky, ""The Bush Administration's Civic Agenda and National Service""; Mark E. Warren, ""What is the Political Role of Nonprofits in a Democracy?""; Steven Rathgeb Smith, ""Government and Nonprofits in the Modern Age: Is Independence Possible?""; Amy L. Sherman, ""Faith in Communities: A Solid Investment""; Stephen V. Monsma, ""Nonprofit and Faith-Based Welfare-to-Work Programs: Government's Partners or Government's Captives?""; Thomas H. Jeavons, ""The Vitality and Independence of Religious Organizations: A Once and Future Trend""; Estelle James, ""Commercialism--Does It Help or Hurt the Nonprofit's Mission?""; J. Gregory Dees and Beth Battle Anderson, ""Sector-Bending: Blurring the Lines Between Nonprofit and For-Profit""; David Reingold, ""Scaling-up National Service in an Era of Performance Measurement and Accountability.""In Search of the Nonprofit Sector will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the pressing management and policy challenges facing nonprofit organizations today.

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.

One of the major tasks facing researchers, practitioners, and funders is the development of empirical tools to measure the inherent worth of nonprofit organizations as well as the sector as a whole. Renowned scholars present chapters on the state of the art of performance measurement in the nonprofit sector and seek to establish a framework for a long-term research agenda to identify, quantify, and self-assess those qualities that make the nonprofit sector unique.

“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