The Nonprofit FAQ

Key Texts for Understanding Nonprofits
On September 26, 2008, Theron K. Fuller wrote to ARNOVA-L (see http://www.arnova.org) to refer readers to the classified list of nonprofit related books compiled by Mark Sidel for The Association of American University Presses.

See http://www.aaupnet.org/news/bfu/nonprofit/list.html

Dr Susan Keen of the University of New South Wales in Australia wrote to ARNOVA-L on 11/16/98:

I have been asked to create a list of the ten most important texts on the third sector, or nonprofit sector. The list can include books, key journal articles, or books of collected articles/essays. The list will assist in teaching/research in the area.

Following are some of the suggestions ARNOVAns made, grouped under the email author's name and lightly edited for style. (There are links to order some of the books through Amazon.Com. Orders placed in this way generate royalties which are used to maintain the Nonprofit FAQ. Books with no link are out of print or not listed in the Amazon.Com catalog at all.)

Tammy Sent, Indiana State University:


Femida Handy, York University:


Nancy E. Landrum, New Mexico State University:


Judy Haiven, Saskatoon:

..."I'll add a few Canadian and British texts..."
Martin Garber-Conrad, Edmonton, Alberta Canada:


  • Roger Lohmann's article from Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 4, Winter 1989, titled: "And Lettuce is Nonanimal: Toward a Positive Economics of Voluntary Action."
  • Also, of historical rather than just antiquarian interest, Andrew Carnegie's "The Gospel of Wealth," published as Article 1 in The Nonprofit Organization: Essential Readings, edited by David L. Gies, J. Steven Ott, and Jay M. Shafritz, Brooks/Cole Publishing, 1990.
  • "The Emerging Sector: In Search of a Framework" Edited by Ronald Hirshorn, Canadian Policy Research Networks, 1997. This is a study paper/forum document rather than an entirely original opus, but does think about the sector (north of the border) at a quite "high" level.
  • An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector" Edited by Justin Davis Smith, Colin Rochester and Rodney Hedley. Routledge, 1995. Also has a chapter (6) on "The voluntary and non-profit sectors in continental Europe." (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415099226/internetnonprofi"> An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector from Amazon.Com.)

John Hewitt, University of Melbourne, AUSTRALIA:


  • John Van Til, Mapping the Third Sector: voluntarism in a changing social economy. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879542403/internetnonprofi"> Mapping the Third Sector from Amazon.Com.)
  • Paul Hirst, Associative Democracy: new forms of social and economic governance. (Order http://www.amazon.com/dp/0870238973/?tag=internetnonprofi">Associative Democracy: New Forms of Economic and Social Governance from Amazon.Com.)
  • On a historical note you cannot go past the works of Otto von Gierke (1841-1921). Selections of his magnum opus (Da Deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht) have been judiciously collected by Antony Black in Community in Historical Perspective. Another relevant work of Gierke's is Associations and Law: the classical and early Christian stages. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052133487X/internetnonprofi"> Community in Historical Perspective from Amazon.Com.)
  • Antony Black has also written a key historical text, Guilds and Civil Society in European Political Thought from the 12th century to the present.

John Palmer Smith, Case Western Reserve University:


Richard C. Sansing, Dartmouth College:


John Casey, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona:


William A. Ninacs, Quebec:


  • Defourny, Jacques, and Monzon Campos, Jose Luis (Editors), Economie Sociale: entre economie capitaliste et economie publique/The Third Sector: Cooperative, Mutual and Nonprofit Organizations, Brussels: CIRIEC and De Boeck-Wesmael, Inc., 1992.
  • Macfarlane, Richard, and Laville, Jean-Louis. Developing Community Partnerships in Europe: New Ways of Meeting Social Needs in Europe. London (England): Directory of Social Change and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1992. This book is available through the Centre for Community Enterprise (British Columbia, Canada): [email protected]
  • Jean-Louis Laville also has a recent short publication called An Approach of Non Profit Organizations and Welfare Mix: The "Proximity Services". It is available through his research centre, the CRIDA-LSCI in Paris (Fax: 33 1 4229 9325).
  • In 1996, the OECD published the proceedings of a couple of European seminars in Reconciling the Economy and Society: Towards a Plural Economy. Order from http://www.amazon.com/dp/9264148035/?tag=internetnonprofi">Reconciling the Economy and Society Amazon.com
  • Finally, a book which should soon be published by Black Rose (Montreal, New York) Social Economy: Critiques and Perspectives, Edited by Jean-Marc Fontan and Eric Shragge

Kristin Scotchmer, The Union Institute:


  • Fernando, Jude L. and Alan W. Heston (Eds.). (November 1997). The Role of NGOs: Charity and Empowerment. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA. [This is a special issue (Volume 554) of the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political Science and can be found by calling 805-499-9774] Order http://www.amazon.com/dp/0761911731/?tag=internetnonprofi">The Role of NGOs: Charity and Empowerment from Amazon.com.
  • Civicus Publications - Washington, DC [Available by calling 202-331-8518 or visiting web-site http://www.civicus.org]. Titles include:

    • The New Civic Atlas: Profiles of Civil Society in 60 Countries (1997)
    • CITIZENS: Strengthening Global Civil Society (1994)

  • Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Publications - for a list of titles, contact the Center at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Tel: (410) 516-8473, Fax: (410) 516-8233 or visit the web-site at http://www.jhu.edu/~ips/civil.soc.html. Among the titles:
  • McCarthy, Kathleen D., Virginia A. Hodgkinson, Russy D. Sumariwalla, et al. (1992). The Nonprofit Sector in the Global Community: Voices from Many Nations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass & Washington, DC: Independent Sector. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555423973/internetnonprofi"> The Nonprofit Sector in the Global Community from Amazon.Com.)

Saxon Harding, Ottawa, Canada:


  • Henry Hannsman, The Ownership of Enterprise (Belknap, 1996). Looks at all forms of enterprise and suggests how the various forms "solve" the issues each has been set up to handle. The author is both an economist and a lawyer. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674649702/internetnonprofi"> The Ownership of Enterprise from Amazon.Com.)

Putnam Barber, Seattle


  • John Burbidge, ed., Beyond Prince and Merchant: Citizen Participation and the Rise of Civil Society (New York: Pact Publications, 1997) Papers prepared for an international conference reflect differeing views of the topic around the world. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888753099/internetnonprofi"> Beyond Prince and Merchant from Amazon.Com.)
  • Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals A look deep into the past of the concept with contrasts sharpened by comparisons with Marxist and Arab approaches. (New York: Viking Penguin, 1994).(Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140236058/internetnonprofi"> Conditions of Liberty from Amazon.Com.)
  • Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action (Harvard, 1965 and 1971). A closely reasoned challenge to the idea that organized groups routinely foster the public good, or even pursue the common interests of their members under normal conditions. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674537513/internetnonprofi"> The Logic of Collective Action from Amazon.Com.)
  • Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge, 1990) An anthropological study of several cases where groups manage a scarce resource in common, or fail to do so, with analysis of common themes. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521405998/internetnonprofi"> Governing the Commons from Amazon.Com.).
  • Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, 1993). A careful examination of the social conditions that led to the success or failure of newly constituted democratic local institutions which concludes that long-standing civic traditions made a critical difference. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691037388/internetnonprofi"> Making Democracy Work from Amazon.Com.)
  • Alan Ware, Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organizations in Britain and the United States (Princeton, 1989). Includes cooperatives and other mututal-benefit organizations along with the more commonly studied public-benefit types, and explores the contrast between the institutional climate in the two countries. Order http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691078181/?tag=internetnonprofi">Between Profit and State: Intermediate Organizations in Britain and the United States from Amazon.com


Compiled January 9, 1999 with additions on January 18; aaup list added 9/26/08 -- PB