Case studies suggest that important changes in the composition and structure of boards of trustees of non-profit organisations have occurred in recent decades. The nature of these changes, and how they may vary across industry and locale, are not well documented. This pilot study compares changes in structure and board membership of three elite non-profit organisations in two cities at three points in time: 1925, 1955 and 1985. This study focuses on governing boards of the major art museum, largest non-profit hospital and local United Way of Boston and Cleveland. Board members’ biographical data are used to assess models of board diversification based on environmental pressures and changes in local elites. We find evidence that trusteeship varies historically, regionally and across industries, and we set the stage for broader-based empirical comparative work on changes in non-profit boards of trustees.

Taking as the point of departure the political-ideological and fiscal ‘crises of the welfare state’, this article emphasises recent changes in the relationship between voluntary organisations and the public sector in Norway, changes that open up new space for the voluntary sector both ideologically and as a service producer. We question whether voluntary organisations are able to cope with new and extensive welfare problems within the more decentralised welfare state. Do they express the values, and do they possess the resources that both governmental agencies and the organisations themselves take for granted? As part of that discussion, the article questions the dominant view within the literature, namely that Scandinavia has a very weak voluntary sector. We argue that ‘state-friendly’ Norway has a rather strong voluntary sector, that this sector is of a specific type, and that both of these factors have important theoretical implications not only for Scandinavia, but for an overall understanding of the voluntary sector.

Historical circumstances and available data sources have determined in large part the measurement strategies and specific estimates for individual components associated with the independent sector. The research programme at the Independent Sector (IS) started with the obvious advantage that other qualified researchers had conducted initial studies and published their findings about different aspects of the non-profit sector (Commission on Private Philanthropy and Public Needs, 1977). This helped us tremendously in our efforts to transform and make a mass of somewhat disparate data into a coherent, if not precise, description of the dimensions of the independent sector. In developing our programmes, we have relied on published and unpublished statistics and programmes of the US Government, those of private organisations, IS-commissioned surveys and in-house studies. Without significant contributions from each of these sources, our knowledge and understanding of the independent sector would be more circumscribed, and our estimates more aggregate and probably less precise than they are at present.

This paper examines the stratification systems of over 200 organisations, individually represented by the internal income distributions of each organisation, in turn seen as products of executive decision-making. As a first principle, I assume that in any decision-making situation in which organisational leaders must choose between their own welfare and the welfare of their employees, they will almost always select the selfish course of action. In accordance with this axiom of executive greed, the majority of intra-organisational income distributions exhibit a substantial positive or right skew (that is, many people in the lower income levels and very few in the highest). Yet there is sufficient variation to suggest that there are forces which constrain executive greed. Combining the ‘new structuralist’ perspective on stratification with resource dependency and organisational fields models, the paper examines hypotheses which maintain that the shape of internal distributive systems is affected by: (i) organisational properties, such as size and structural complexity, which empower the employee in labour relations with management; and (ii) highly-institutionalised resource dependencies which constrain income disbursement decisions. Data are taken from a US sample of art museums. The results of the analyses seriously contradict the new structuralist's empowerment accounts of the effects of size and structural complexity on stratification, and suggest that their propositions have been posed at a level which may be far too general. Certain highly-institutionalised resource dependencies are found to promote equality in internal distributive systems.

Over the past two decades, a number of important theories of non-profit activity have been developed, mainly by economists. In part, these theories attempt to explain why non-profit organisations are formed and flourish in some fields of activity and not in others. This paper seeks to test the adequacy of these explanations by seeing if they can explain seven cases of the formation of important sets of non-profit organisations in Australia. To this end, it sketches a history of non-profit organisations in Australia over the past 200 years and explores in more detail seven important cases of non-profit formation and development. It finds that, while in most cases the economic theories provide part of an explanation, there is a good deal which they cannot explain. Adequate explanations of non-profit formation will need to draw on social as well as economic theory.

The Nonprofit Almanac (née Dimensions of the Independent Sector), is an invaluable compilation of basic statistical data on the non-profit sector in the United States. Included within this volume are detailed figures on the expenditures and revenues of the non-profit sector as a whole and of its component parts, as well as extensive data on the activities of foundations and the scope and pattern of private giving and volunteering.

Invaluable though it is, however, the Almanac also presents its users with a number of important issues, some of which are highlighted in the document itself, but most of which are far less apparent. In order to use the Almanac appropriately and interpret its data correctly, it is essential that these issues be examined and understood.

The purpose of this article is to call attention to some of the most important of these issues and suggest the implications they have for the way we interpret the Almanac's picture of the non-profit sector. In particular, I focus on four issues that I believe are especially important but also especially likely to be overlooked.

North Atlantic NGOs have significantly increased their role in international development. They have expanded their activities beyond relief to include a more structural approach to third-world poverty and have attracted increasing amounts of government subsidies for their work overseas. They have also begun to engage in education of their home populations about global poverty and have established close ties to an emerging network of third-world NGOs who channel their resources to the grassroots poor abroad. In the post-Cold War era, North Atlantic NGOs enjoy some unique opportunities to expand their work due to the increase of third-world democracy and free-market economies, but they also face some critical challenges ahead - balancing periodic relief efforts with long-term development programmes, resisting pressures by governments to use NGOs for their own purposes, upgrading the quality of development education at home, and finding ways to relate to third-world NGOs as more equal partners. These and other challenges (for example, improving institutional capacities of North Atlantic NGOs to handle increasing demands, and relationship between third-world NGOs and grassroots organisations) need the attention of scholars in the years ahead.

Aspects of industrial relations and internal co-ordination have been a major topic of empirical research in the German business enterprise sector. In contrast, there are practically no empirical investigations into labour-management relations in third sector institutions. The largest share of this sector in Germany is represented by the two Christian churches with presently about 900,000 employees. According to the notion of church officials, labour-management relations in these institutions are characterised by a specific normative concept which emphasises a trustful co-operation of all employees in the mission of the church. The major concern of our research project focused on the question whether the specific conditions of employment within church institutions favour more hierarchical or more co-operative forms of co-ordination and how employees and employee representatives perceive the ‘ideal of the community of service’ (Dienstgemeinschaftsgedanke). The results of our research lead to the conclusion that church labour-management relations are characterised by a remarkable contrast between the participative or co-operative notion of the ideal of the ‘community of service’ and present forms of hierarchical co-ordination inside church institutions.

This paper first reviews the measurement and presentation of non-profit institutions in the US national income and product accounts. For the most part in these accounts, transactions of non-profit institutions serving individuals are consolidated with those of the individuals served and recorded in the personal income and outlay account, a treatment that a majority of users have never found satisfactory. The paper next details the recommendations for these institutions proposed for the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA). The paper then offers some suggestions on how the treatment of non-profit institutions in the US national income and product accounts might be modified in the light of the 1993 SNA recommendations.

In the face of severe resource shortages, community financing is increasingly being promoted as an alternative source of finance for public health providers. Non-government organisations have longstanding experience of community financing, but there is little documentation of the range of approaches. In this review, a sample of twenty NGOs was studied to explore these experiences. The range of approaches adopted by different organisations and the information available regarding success in achieving financial sustainability are described. Two preconditions for successful community financing (in this sense) are suggested by the evidence: collection of relevant background data relating to the proposed site of the community financing programme, and consultation with the community.

The Independent Sector's statistical profiling of the non-profit sector in the United States is unique. No other country enjoys such a thorough, rich or informative volume as The Nonprofit Almanac or its predecessors, Dimensions of the Independent Sector.

Although the international sales of Dimensions and The Almanac will doubtless account for but a small proportion of the total, these volumes nevertheless reach many scholars, organisations and governments across the world. As the contribution of the voluntary or non-profit sector grows, both within individual countries and in international exchange and understanding, it is also natural that those scholars, organisations and governments might look to The Almanac as a guide or model for their own endeavours. How useful is The Almanac for that purpose?

In addressing this question, I want to focus on the issues for Europe. These issues might not apply elsewhere, for most European countries have characteristics which do not necessarily apply to developing or other countries. They have well-developed non-profit sectors, well-developed national income statistics (though rarely do those statistics adequately identify or measure the non-profit sector), and generally well-established and respected research communities.

An analysis of the field of higher education reveals a surprisingly large number of classification errors within the (US) National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities database. Of the nearly 4,000 non-profit entities coded within the universe of institutions of higher education, we estimate that approximately 60 per cent were incorrectly included (Type II errors). Institutions incorrectly excluded from the higher education universe (Type I errors) represent roughly 10 per cent of the institutions coded correctly. These errors result primarily from assigning codes on the basis of the names of organisations (for example, ‘College Park Towers’ is classified as a college, when it is in fact a housing complex for senior citizens) and from trying too hard to assign codes in ambiguous situations. The consequences can be significant for the users of these data, and we recommend raising bright warning flags while simultaneously enlisting the help of the entire non-profit sector in improving the classification coding process.

This Nonprofit Almanac Symposium, sponsored by Voluntas, is noteworthy. The symposium celebrates the publication of the Nonprofit Almanac 1992-1993. This is really the fourth edition of the work by Virginia Hodgkinson and Murray Weitzman which first appeared in 1984. That first edition was less than 80 pages long; the second edition, in 1986, was twice that length; the third edition, in 1989, comprised 224 pages; and the current edition has 619 pages plus an index, a table of contents, etc. We can safely assume that its growth in length reflects both the growth rate of its value to us and the growth rate of the effort it takes to produce it. It has become an absolutely indispensable resource for all interested in the independent sector in this country.

During the last decades, value added taxation (VAT) has become widely used. Introducing or widening VAT may have important consequences for third sector organisations. There is no consistent, widely-accepted theory regarding the treatment of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) under VAT. International comparisons are difficult to make. The general scope of VAT, what goods and especially what services are included in the tax base, may be more important to NGOs than the direct concessions granted them. To comprehend how VAT may affect NGOs, it is necessary to understand the general mechanism and some of the technical details of VAT, such as registration thresholds and accounting requirements. There is a tendency for the legislature to widen the tax base and make VAT as general as possible. Tax administrative considerations may acquire the character of absolute principles. When VAT is introduced or widened, it may be important for NGOs to demonstrate how their tax bill has been changed as a possible unintended side-effect due to the administrative need to make VAT as comprehensive as possible.

This paper discusses the conceptual treatment of non-profit institutions in the US input-output (I-O) accounts prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, describes the sources and methods used to identify and measure the output of non-profits by I-O industry, and analyses the published benchmark I-O data for 1982 identifying output attributable to non-profits. In the context of the I-O framework, which is detailed and comprehensive, some conceptual and statistical questions associated with the treatment of non-profits are identified and discussed. These issues of definition, scope and measurement are particularly pertinent in light of the recommendations in the 1993 international System of National Accounts on sectoring and on presentation of flows.

This article describes and analyses the ideas and activities of the Italian industrialist, Adriano Olivetti (1901-1960). Although by most interpretations of the term philanthropy, Olivetti would be considered a philanthropist, Italians have not viewed him in that way, and outside of Italy his ‘philanthropic’ work has not received the attention it deserves. In this article the theory and praxis of Adriano Olivetti are analysed in order to shed light on two significant issues in the study of philanthropy generally: first, the basic problem of the applicability of the concept in different cultural contexts; and second, a related question about the borderlines between philanthropic, third sector activities and political activities, and how these borders may shift or even disappear under certain conditions of time and place.