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.

Provides a multi-disciplinary survey of nonprofit organizations and their role and function in society. This book also examines the nature of philanthropic behaviours and an array of organizations, international issues, social science theories, and insight.

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.

At a time when boundaries between the nonprofit, business, and public sectors have grown increasingly confused and contested, this work on non-profit organizations offers frameworks for understanding the terrain that lies between the state and the market.

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.

Now in paperback Making the Nonprofit Sector in the United States A Reader Edited with Introductions by David C. Hammack "Masterfully mining and sifting a four-century historical record, David Hammack has composed an extraordinarily valuable volume: a 'one-stop-shopping' sourcebook on the secular and religious origins and the astonishing growth (and periodic growing pains) of America's nonprofit sector--and the challenges and dilemmas it confronts today." --John Simon, Yale University "It is a delight to see an anthology on nonprofit history done so well." --Barry Karl, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "This is a volume that everyone concerned about nonprofits--scholar, practitioner, and citizen--will find useful and illuminating." --Peter Dobkin Hall, Program on Non-Profit Organizations Yale Divinity School "A remarkable book." --Robert Putnam, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University "An outstanding and timely collection of essential readings for students, researchers and practitioners, carefully edited and introduced by one of the leading historical authorities on the nonprofit sector." --Roseanne M. Mirabella, Center for Public Service, Seton Hall University Unique among nations, the United States conducts almost all of its formally organized religious activity, as well as many cultural, arts, human service, educational, and research activities, through private nonprofit organizations. This reader explores their history by presenting some of the classic documents in the development of the nonprofit sector along with important interpretations and critiques by recent scholars. David C. Hammack is Hiram C. Haydon Professor of History and Chair of the Committee on Educational Programs of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University. Philanthropic Studies--Dwight F. Burlingame and David C. Hammack, general editors