The nonprofit sector includes a variety of organizations from
foundations and religious affiliations to educational institutions, operating
both nationally and around the world. In examining the nonprofit sector, the
different goals of these organizations are obviously going to include a wide
range of praiseworthy efforts, making a comprehensive characterization of the
role of the sector almost impossible.
In order to comply with this challenge, I am going to compare the three
sectors with values and ideas as a vantage point, and explore how different
ideals shape the role of the nonprofit sector in society today.
To most people the nonprofit sector represents ideals of advancing the
public good, and in doing so involved actors should act based on altruistic
motives. As Thomas H. Jeavons puts it, the sector is supposed to consist of
“caring” organizations that are involved for the cause, not for the money
(Jeavons, 2010).
The for profit sector, on the other hand, is expected to have a
profitable production as its main purpose, and everything besides that bottom
line is secondary.
Now I realize, this is a very traditional, some might say conservative,
way of putting it. Some corporations indeed do “well” and “good” at the same
time (Berman, 2002), so why this rigid division of ideas in describing the two
sectors?
I (over-)emphasize these differences in core values, because I believe the
public’s perception of the two sectors are extremely influenced by these
ideals. Jeavons explores how every nonprofit organization suffers when a
scandal occurs to one, and Ebrahim presents tools for upholding accountability
in order to redeem the image of nonprofits, thus putting pressure on the whole
sector (Jeavons, 2010; Ebrahim, 2010). And while this notion is raising the standards
for ethical management of nonprofits, the for profit sector is not hold
accountable by the public in the same way.
The values found in the public sector are more ambiguous. From the end
of the depression and up until the 1980’s, government was increasing and
several welfare systems were introduced (Hall,2010). But since then neoliberal
policies have dominated and the majority of the public supports a smaller
government (Berman, 2002). Central to this notion is limited government spending,
which is expanding the role of nonprofits, as the sector’s role is essentially to
fill the gap between the public’s needs and government services.
So, in between the two sectors the role of the nonprofit sector is on
the one hand expanding, as the welfare needs of a society tends to increase
with time regardless of the size of the government (Berman, 2002), while the
organizations that constitute the sector are being held at higher standards because
of their nonprofit “nature”.
This could potentially affect the performance of nonprofits. The public
and stakeholders’ high standards and focus on measurable results tends to skew
the efforts in the direction of a more compliance-driven approach, where the
main focus becomes complying with laws and expectations, rather than achieving
the overall mission in the best possible way (Ebrahim, 2010).
By highlighting different values in the three sectors, I have tried to
map out the difficult landscape nonprofits in today’s society must navigate in
and what particular challenges they face. My focus has been to contrast the
sectors, in order to better understand the specific nature of the nonprofit
sector. However, I am well aware that in many ways the sectors are also
interlocked and dependent on each other. Recent development of both the nonprofit
and for profit sector has caused many of the boundaries to erode and blurred
the lines between doing “good” and “well”.
References:
Berman,
Howard J. 2002. Doing "Good" vs. Doing "Well": The Role of
Nonprofits in Society. Inquiry 39: 5-11.
Ebrahim,
Alnoor (2010). The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability. In: Renz, David O,
ed. 2010. The Jossey-Bass Handbook of
Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA.
Hall, Peter
Dobkin (2010). Historical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations in the United
States. In: Renz, David O, ed. 2010. The
Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Jossey-Bass.
San Francisco, CA.
Jeavons,
Thomas H. (2010) Ethical Nonprofit Management: Core Values and Key Practices. In:
Renz, David O, ed. 2010. The Jossey-Bass
Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Jossey-Bass. San
Francisco, CA.
