Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America [Hardcover]

Michael O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787954144 | ISBN-13: 978-0787954147 | Publication Date: June 15, 2002 | Edition: Revised Edition

In Nonprofit Nation, the new edition of his classic work, O'Neill takes a fresh look at the nonprofit sector and the power it has to use its growing visibility and strength. Like the first edition, this new book is an up-to-date, comprehensive guide to understanding the nonprofit sector. Identifying and examining the major nonprofit subsectors-health care, arts, social service, and religious organizations, for example-and detailing their particular concerns and impact enable O'Neill to explore their influence on business, government and society. The new edition also features:

• Expanded sections on scope and impact
• Updated and enlarged statistical information
• New insights on the development of the nonprofit sector
• A new section on theories of the nonprofit sector

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An invaluable compendium: accurate, detailed, and up-to-date facts embedded in an incisive commentary on the history, impact, and prospects of the nonprofit sector. The marriage of information and understanding at its very best."
--Paul G. Schervish, director, Social Welfare Research Institute and professor, Department of Sociology, Boston College

"Written by an outstanding scholar and leader in the nonprofit research field and rich with information, this masterful overview of the voluntary, nonprofit sector in America successfully balances accuracy of presentation, comprehensiveness, and careful judgements with a high degree of readability. This is one book that everyone concerned with American nonprofits and philanthropy should read to understand the nonprofit sector as a whole."
--David Horton Smith, founder, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action

"The most comprehensive guidebook to America's magnificent but still largely uncharted third, nonprofit, voluntary, independent sector, written by the person most qualified to guide us."
--Brian O'Connell, founding president, INDEPENDENT SECTOR

"Michael O'Neill has written a Baedeker for the nonprofit world. No traveler should leave home without having read it."
--Leslie Lenkowsky, professor, Center on Philanthropy, Indiana University

From the Back Cover

With the introduction of the first edition of his landmark book The Third America, Michael O'Neill created a much-needed resource for analyzing and understanding the "invisible sector"-the thousands of nonprofit organizations that have a significant impact on society but have less than significant visibility.

The nonprofit sector is no longer invisible. It is a high-profile, high-impact community that affects the lives of people throughout the country and the world. Understanding the nonprofit sector is essential--both to the professionals and volunteers within the sector and to concerned citizens and community leaders who work with the nonprofits that influence our society.

In Nonprofit Nation, the new edition of his classic work, O'Neill takes a fresh look at the nonprofit sector and the power it has to use its growing visibility and strength. Like the first edition, this new book is an up-to-date, comprehensive guide to understanding the nonprofit sector. Identifying and examining the major nonprofit subsectors-health care, arts, social service, and religious organizations, for example-and detailing their particular concerns and impact enable O'Neill to explore their influence on business, government and society. The new edition also features:

• Expanded sections on scope and impact
• Updated and enlarged statistical information
• New insights on the development of the nonprofit sector
• A new section on theories of the nonprofit sector

In addition, O'Neill addresses the direction, growth, and role of the nonprofit sector for the next twenty-five years, and his insights are sure to prove helpful to nonprofits wanting to sustain and increase their impact on society.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; Revised Edition edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787954144
• ISBN-13: 978-0787954147
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Book has a different cover, February 24, 2011

By 

sara1227 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America (Hardcover)

Could have described that it is not the book in the picture. I paid for the book in the picture, and received a book with a weird blue cover instead.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Resource for Strategic Thinkers and the Curious, April 26, 2005

By 

Michael Wyland "Nonprofit Consultant" (Sioux Falls, SD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America (Hardcover)

This book does a great job of answering basic questions about nonprofits and the nonprofit sector. It also analyzes each segment of the nonprofit sector and brings out some key data and observations about each one. Finally, it seeks to look into the future of nonprofits. Anyone interested in the sector, and especially nonprofit executive directors, consultants, and others who should be involved in global nonprofit strategy will find this book to be a valuable resource.

The first striking lesson I learned from Dr. O'Neill's book is that, while the nonprofit sector has been growing significantly in the past 30 years, in many ways it has just kept pace with the rest of the economy. Personal, corporate, and foundation giving are remarkably stable, and the percentage of charity dollars given by donors to segments such as education, health care, the arts, and international causes have remained constant since the 1970s. Even the growth in the number of new nonprofits seeking IRS recognition has been relatively constant (in percentage terms) since at least the early 1980s.

The dollar totals change, but the percentages are constant. Knowing this prompts important questions about how charities plan, how and whether they solicit for funds, and where likely support is to be found for new initiatives.

Dr. O'Neill doesn't shrink from acknowledging the vast amount we don't know about the nonprofit sector. Anyone analyzing the data recognize that policymakers and researchers alike are making best guesses rather than reaching definite conclusions in many areas of analysis. We're a long way from having "census" data on the nonprofit sector.

There are almost 1 million charities recognized by the IRS, but we don't know for sure how many are active and how many are defunct. There are almost 2 million nonprofits of all types (charities plus churches, labor unions, chambers of commerce, private clubs, etc.) that the IRS lists. The Form 990 returns -- that only IRS-recognized charities with revenue greater than $25,000 are required to file -- are works of interpretation by filers as well as researchers.

In fact, much nonprofit activity occurs outside record-keeping capabilities. Giving a friend's child the money to attend college, organizing a softball team, or countless other activities never reach the level of IRS recognition, much less scrutiny. We can study what we know, and guess about the rest based on other data sources.

Dr. O'Neill has done an admirable job of interpreting these other sources, adding the IRS and other government data, and presenting a plausible picture of the nonprofit economy.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America, November 29, 2004

By 

T. Marshall - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nonprofit Nation: A New Look at the Third America (Hardcover)

Don't waste your time! If you want to read a boring, poorly researched book of statistics at least four years old, then I suggest you buy it. But the statistics are even out of date. If you have lived on this planet for a few years, you already know about the examples he uses. Pathetic writing. If for some reason the examples are new to you don't trust them. He says Ralph Nader advocated for a safer Chevrolet Corvette. If the author doesn't know it was a Chevrolet Corvair, then he is clueless! Read Greater Good by Claire Gaudiani if you want to learn something.