On Being Nonprofit: A Conceptual and Policy Primer - Softcover

This intelligent analysis sheds light on the meaning and operation of the nonprofit sector. Authorities, including those in government, have often portrayed nonprofits as merely forms of interest groups or, alternatively, service organizations that educate, feed, or otherwise assist some subset of society. This book makes clear that nonprofits include both of these types of organizations and others...Highly recommended. -- W. P. Browne Choice 20030301 On Being Nonprofit is an excellent volume for the beginner, as well as a provocative volume for the experienced scholar. I hope this well-written book will stimulate more theorizing about the nature, functions, and contributions of such third sectors in various societies. -- Virginia A. Hodgkinson Contemporary Sociology Frumkin's book ties together, in one place, many strands of thought about the nonprofit sector, and will serve as an important resource for scholars. Exceptionally well-written and easy to understand...Frumkin gives us the kind of intellectual tour of the sector that those of us who call ourselves 'nonprofit scholars' have needed for a long time. -- Arthur C. Brooks Public Administration Review 20030701 The book's strong features are its inclusive conceptual framework, its consideration of current debates and controversies, and its exploration of a series of basic tensions that seem inherent in the nonprofit sector due to its diversity. These are challenges that academics, practitioners, policy makers, and other nonprofit stakeholders must understand. -- Wolfgang Bielefeld Nonprofit And Voluntary Sector Quarterly 20031201

This concise and illuminating book provides a road map to the evolving conceptual and policy terrain of the nonprofit sector. Drawing on prominent economic, political, and sociological explanations of nonprofit activity, Peter Frumkin focuses on four important functions that have come to define nonprofit organizations. The author clarifies the debate over the underlying rationale for the nonprofit and voluntary sector's privileged position in America by examining how nonprofits deliver needed services, promote civic engagement, express values and faith, and channel entrepreneurial impulses. He also exposes the difficult policy questions that have emerged as the boundaries between the nonprofit, business, and government sectors have blurred. Focusing on nonprofits' growing dependence on public funding, tendency toward political polarization, often idiosyncratic missions, and increasing commercialism, Peter Frumkin argues that the long-term challenges facing nonprofit organizations will only be solved when they achieve greater balance among their four central functions. By probing foundational thinking as well as emergent ideas, the book is an essential guide for nonprofit novitiates and experts alike who want to understand the issues propelling public debate about the future of their sector. By virtue of its breadth and insight, Frumkin's book will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding the complex interplay of public purposes and private values that animate nonprofit organizations.