nonprofit organization

nonprofit organization, an organization, typically dedicated to pursuing mission-oriented goals through the collective actions of citizens, that is not formed and organized so as to generate a profit.

In the United States a nonprofit organization is legally delineated from firms in the for-profit sector by its tax-exempt status. Outside the United States, the legal framework defining the government, business, and nonprofit sectors can be less distinct, depending on the country. International nonprofit organizations are often referred to as nongovernmental organizations, although that term may also include for-profit entities. Nonprofit organizations participate in a large array of activities, from education to poverty relief and music to political advocacy. They grew tremendously in number and in resources throughout the world in the latter half of the 20th century. The term third sector has also been used to describe nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations.

Nonprofit organizations and civic participation

The nonprofit sector provides many opportunities for civic participation. Examples range from groups centred on a pastime, such as a local choral group, to advocacy organizations centred on health, environmental, or other policy issues. Demographic groups that are disenfranchised, such as ethnic minorities, can form nonprofit organizations and develop a collective voice in the polity that is stronger than their voice in traditional representative governments. Individuals can develop leadership skills within the realm of the nonprofit sector and then transition to active participation in decision making in their community. Public participation in nonprofit organizations is limited in some organizations where funding is largely from commercial sources (for example, hospitals). Other organizations involve the public mainly through payment of an annual membership fee. In contrast, many nonprofit organizations depend heavily on volunteer labour and extensive involvement of community members to carry out mission-related programs.

Despite creating opportunities for enhanced civic participation, a strong nonprofit sector can dilute the mandate of the voting public in several ways. First, nonprofit organizations are run not by elected officials but by community members who have the time and wherewithal to devote themselves to the cause—which often means the community elite. Second, as government agencies contract out their services to be produced by nonprofit organizations, those services are produced by organizations with multiple stakeholders, including board members, staff, and donors. The clarity of command, from the taxpaying and voting public down to the direct service provider, becomes less distinct. Rules or norms that are clear and unquestioned at the government level, such as the separation of church and state (or in another country, the unified church-state), can be modified to accommodate differing points of view when the government funds a nonprofit organization to produce a service. Finally, an external funder, such as an overseas foundation, can finance activities that the home government either cannot afford to produce or may not want to produce.

Nonprofit organizational structure

Decision making in nonprofit organizations may be complex because of the multitude of stakeholders involved in organizations. A board of directors convenes at regular intervals to review the finances of the organization and to provide administrative guidance for the organization’s staff. In smaller organizations, the administrative role of directors, other volunteers, and paid staff is blurred as volunteers perform substantial administrative tasks. Indirectly, funders also participate in decision making as nonprofit organizations work with foundations, governments, and individuals to define future programs that both fit the organization’s intended purpose and attract revenue.

Growth of the nonprofit sector

Since colonial days in the United States, citizens have actively participated in voluntary associations, and the roots of the American nonprofit sector extend back to that preference for association outside the purview of the government. Colonial leaders expressed distrust of the potential power of voluntary association leaders to sway public opinion. Distrust of nonprofit organizations has surfaced repeatedly throughout history as lawmakers sought to limit political advocacy and other activities of foundations and other nonprofit organizations. On the other hand, governments have turned to nonprofit organizations, especially since the 1980s, to deliver a vast array of public services that were once provided by public agencies.

Nongovernmental organizations have expanded in influence worldwide. Particularly in developing nations, nongovernmental organizations have developed their capacity since the 1990s to work in partnership with home governments to alleviate poverty and other pressing problems. International human rights organizations have also gained stature—for example, working with the United Nations in addressing international human rights violations. It is their presumed lack of country-specific bias that gives their voice credibility in the international policy arena.

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With their increased preference for market-oriented enterprise, governments have relinquished much of their service-provision role in favour of managing networks of subcontractors, including both for-profit and nonprofit firms. Some forms of subcontracting benefit nonprofit firms directly, such as a hunger-relief organization carrying out a government-funded contract. Other forms of subcontracting benefit nonprofit agencies indirectly by providing demand-side subsidies to consumers, who may choose nonprofit agencies to provide the service. A prominent example of a demand-side subsidy is Medicare and Medicaid payments for health care in the United States.

The tremendous increase in health and human service sector payments to the nonprofit sector, one should note, paints a picture of a sector that has rapidly transformed since the 1990s from reliance on donations to reliance on commercial fees. However, outside the health and human service sectors, nonprofit organizations are still strongly dependent on donations from individuals, not commercial revenues. In the second half of the 20th century, nonprofit organizations that relied heavily on donated revenues increasingly turned to high-wealth individuals for major gifts, in comparison to broad-based funding mechanisms seen in previous decades (such as the March of Dimes campaign to end polio). In theory, if a greater proportion of donations come from high-wealth individuals, then decision making in those nonprofit organizations will be more influenced by high-wealth donors than by the rest of the organizations’ members and stakeholders.