Historical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations in the United States

Although charitable, educational, and religious organizations are thousands of years old (for example, the Roman Catholic church) and some in the United States (for example, Harvard College) were founded in colonial times, the concept of ‘‘nonprofit organizations’’ as a unified and coherent ‘‘sector’’ dates back only to the 1970s. In fact, over 90 percent of nonprofit organizations currently in existence were created since 1950. Worldwide, most nongovernmental organizations (or NGOs, as they are called outside the United States) have come into being in the past thirty years. Nonprofits and NGOs are the most rapidly growing organizational domain in the world. It is difficult to define what nonprofit organizations are, what they do, and how they do it. They vary enormously in scope and scale, ranging from informal grassroots organizations with no assets and no employees to multi-billiondollar foundations, universities, religious bodies, and health care complexes with thousands of employees or members. Although some provide traditional charitable, educational, and religious services, the laws in many countries, including the United States, permit them to provide almost any kind of good or service on a not-for-profit basis. Sources of revenue vary: some are supported by donations, others depend on income from sales of goods and services, many receive most or all of their revenues from government. Modes of governance range from the autocracy of sole trustees selected from among the descendants of