Nonprofit Organizations in a Democracy—Roles and Responsibilities
Elizabeth T. Boris
Nonprofit organizations are a vital force of civil society, distinct from both government and business. Nonprofits are like government in some of their goals, but they are different in others. Through both collaboration and conflict, they shape and are shaped by government policies and funding. Nonprofits have in common that they are voluntary and self-governing, may not distribute profits, and serve public purposes as well as the common goals of their members. These organizations are even more diverse than the terms typically associated with them: nongovernmental organizations, civil society, philanthropic sector, tax-exempt organizations, charities, voluntary associations, civic sector organizations, third sector organizations, independent sector organizations, nonprofit organizations, and social sector organizations.
This introduction provides a broad overview of nonprofit organizations and their finances, the roles they play in society, and their relationships with government—themes the following chapters examine in detail.
"Nonprofit" is the generic term used in this chapter and in this book to describe organizations that make up the "nonprofit" sector,1 distinct from the government and business sectors. The nonprofit sector includes religious congregations, universities, hospitals, environmental groups, art museums, youth recreation associations, civil rights groups, community development organizations, labor unions, political parties, social clubs, and many more. Nonprofits play prominent social, economic, and political roles in society as service providers, but they are also employers and advocates. Their numbers and economic impact have grown recently as they increasingly contract with government to deliver a variety of services, particularly health care. This relationship is usually collaborative. As advocates, however, they lobby for and against government policies that affect their constituencies or interests, often invoking conflict.
Nonprofits also play less visible but vital roles that are captured under the rubric of "civil society"—fostering community engagement and civic participation, and promoting and preserving civic, cultural, and religious values. These roles are usually financed though giving and volunteering rather than fees and contracts, and can involve either collaboration or conflict with government, although they typically fall outside direct government purview.
The service provision and economic dimensions of nonprofit activities tend be better documented than their contributions to democratic pluralism. Scholars are increasingly, however, exploring the central role that formal and informal nonprofits play in creating the glue that holds communities together and the avenues they provide for civic participation and a robust civil society (O'Connell 1999; Putnam 2000; Skocpol and Fiorina 1999; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995).
Voluntary associations strengthen and add to the prosperity and success of democracies. They help build the networks of trust and reciprocity, the social capital that allows democratic societies to function effectively (Putnam 1993; Walzer 1995). Cooperative activities bring together people with divergent opinions who learn to work together on issues of mutual interest or for the common good. Citizens participate in democratic governance by joining together to accomplish public purposes, voice their concerns to government, and monitor the impact of business, government, and nonprofit activities on the public. Nonprofits also promote and defend values and competing visions of the public good, and they harness altruism and public and private resources to serve those who need assistance. All of these activities require the freedom to associate, deliberate, and act in the public sphere—freedoms constitutions and laws guarantee. Inevitably, however, competing values and interests often produce conflict. Also inevitably, where public resources are directly or indirectly involved, government regulation and oversight follow.
The interaction between government and nonprofit organizations in civil society is complex and dynamic, ebbing and flowing with shifts in social and economic policy, political administrations, and social norms. Because nonprofits are heterogeneous, they reflect sharp differences as well as common aspirations. Their impacts can be positive or negative, antagonistic or conciliatory, depending on their activities as well as the perspective of the analyst. Of course, speaking about nonprofits in the aggregate invites overgeneralization—obscuring the huge variation and diversity of nonprofit roles, contributions, and interactions with government. Similarly, misconceptions of the scale and financial capacity of nonprofits relative to government lead to unrealistic expectations of what these institutions can do, as well as to misconceived public policies that lean too little or too much on them. Partly to avoid these perils, this book analyzes the relationships of nonprofits and government in myriad detail.
1. We use the term nonprofit sector to mean all nonprofit organizations.
Note: The text above is a portion of the complete document. This chapter is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Nonprofits and Government, Second Edition, Edited by Elizabeth T. Boris and C. Eugene Steuerle, is available from the Urban Institute Press (paper, 6" x 9", 466 pages, ISBN 978-0-87766-732-2, $29.50).
