The United States today supports the largest, most varied nonprofit sector in the world.  It is more broad in its reach, better organized, and better funded than any of its counterparts anywhere else on Earth. According to government figures, there are an estimated 2.3 million nonprofit groups in the U.S.  Of these, about 1.63 million are recognized as tax-exempt, and 1.08 million are registered as 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. The IRS recognizes some 400 distinct cause areas in which these entities operate. In addition to its substantial social and political influence, it holds considerable, growing, and unprecedented economic clout, responsible for 5.4% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in 2014, and accounting for over ten percent of the country's private-sector workforce. But where did this vast and complex part of the…

One of the side effects of our American separation of church and state is that churches are neither taxed, nor are they required to file a 990 with the IRS, even though they are generally considered to be “charities.”[1]  But in actual practice over the years, this exemption has spread to religious organizations, so that not only congregations themselves are exempt, but so too are those entities affiliated with a church or religion.  This means that not only congregations and houses of worship are exempt, but so too are religious orders, ministries, missionary organizations, and other similar organized efforts.  But it has to be asked if the blanket exception from both taxation and reporting is necessarily a good thing. Among the historical underpinnings of these exemptions is Chief Justice John…

So my aunt needed a relatively routine in-patient operation; routine, that is, for someone not 89 years of age.  Because of her advanced years, the doctors played it safe, ran numerous tests, and kept her in the hospital for a total of ten days; and then released her to a convalescent home for several weeks of recuperation.  All totaled, she was away from home for all but a few days out of the month. Aware of the fact that she lives alone, several of her neighbors and friends among the church ladies volunteered to keep an eye on her house, collect her mail, and generally make sure that the place would not look unoccupied while she was gone.  I drove down to pick her up and bring her home; and…

Ken Berger and I respond here to a piece Ruth McCambridge had in the Nonprofit Quarterly.... Ruth McCambridge’s December 5th article on the Nonprofit Quarterly’s Nonprofit Newswire page, “Donors Give LESS When More Analytic Say Researchers,” is certainly provocative; but it misses a serious point and could give donors, both large and small, the wrong impression. Reviewing a recent Boston Globe article, McCambridge reports that certain research supports the notion that “the more individual contributors think about their donation the less they are likely to give.”  This, McCambridge concedes, “of course, flies in the face of logic for those who encourage individuals to give more ‘wisely,’ recommending research about an organization’s financial ratios and outcomes.”   The article ends with the conclusion that “encouraging donors to give to the most efficient,…

In this inaugural edition of our blog, maybe the first question we ought to answer is Why do this; why launch yet another blog in a space that is already overwhelmed with competing opinions and a lack of consensus on so many basic issues? One reason is precisely because of the multiplicity of opinions regarding outcomes, the need for them in the work of nonprofits (and government, and philanthropy…).  On one side, there are those who suggest that because of the historical lack of a focus on outcomes, there is scant evidence that the work of most nonprofits has made any discernible difference at all on the multiple problems these organizations exist to address. Additionally, there are some who suggest that those pushing for outcomes in the work of nonprofits…