Key Texts for Understanding Nonprofits

Summary:

Compiled from an email discussion of the topic.

Dr Susan Keen (S.Keen@UNSW.EDU.AU)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:

• Lohmann, Roger A. (Jossey-Bass, 1992). The Commons.
  HN90 .V64 L64 1992. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555424767/internetnonprofi"> The Commons from Amazon.Com.)
  
• Monsma, Stephen V. (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996). When
  Sacred and Secular Mix: Religious Nonprofit Organizations and Public
  Money. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0847681823/internetnonprofi"> When Sacred and Secular Mix from Amazon.Com.)
  
• O'Neill, Michael (Jossey-Bass, 1989). The Third America.
  HD 2785 .O54 1989.
  
• Pappas, Alceste T. (J. Wiley, 1996). Reengineering Your
  Nonprofit Organization: A Guide to Strategic Transformation.
  (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471118079/internetnonprofi"> Reengineering Your
  Nonprofit Organization from Amazon.Com.)
  
• Salamon, Lester (The Foundation Center, 1992). America's
  Nonprofit Sector: A Primer. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879548010/internetnonprofi">
  America's
  Nonprofit Sector: A Primer from Amazon.Com.)
  

Femida Handy, York University:

• Walter Powell The Nonprofit Sector: A Research
  Handbook Yale
  University Press, 1987. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300044976/internetnonprofi"> The Nonprofit Sector from Amazon.Com.)
  
• Burton Weisbrod The Nonprofit Economy Harvard University
  Press, 1988. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674626265/internetnonprofi"> The Nonprofit Economy from Amazon.Com.)
  

Nancy E. Landrum, New Mexico State University:

• The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and
  Management (1994),
  Robert D. Herman (Ed.). (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555426514/internetnonprofi"> The Jossey-Bass Handbook from Amazon.Com.)

Judy Haiven, Saskatoon:

• Hudson, Mike: Managing Without Profit. (London:
  Penguin 1995).
  
• Martin, Samuel: An Essential Grace (Toronto: McClelland
  & Stewart 1985).
  
• Drache, Daniel: Warm Heart, Cold Country (Ottawa:
  Caledon Institute of
  Social Policy 1995).
  
• Stewart, Walter: The Charity Game (Vancouver: Douglas
  and McIntyre 1996).
  
• Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: The Prevention of Destitution (London: Longmans Green, 1916).
  
• Valverde, Mariana. The Age of Light, Soap and Water (Toronto, McClelland &
  Stewart 1993).
  

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 href="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 href="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 href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0870238973/internetnonprofi"> Associative Democracy 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 href="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:

• David Hammack Making the Nonprofit Sector in the United
  States (Indiana University Press, 1998). (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0253334896/internetnonprofi"> Making the Nonprofit Sector from Amazon.Com.)
  

Richard C. Sansing, Dartmouth College:

• The Economics of Nonprofit Institutions (1986) by
  Susan
  Rose-Ackerman.
  

John Casey, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona:

• H.K Anheier and W. Siebel (1990), The Third Sector:
  Comparative Studies
  of Nonprofit Organizations, de Gruyeter NY.
  
• Hanspeter Kriesi, Rudd Koopmans, Jan Willem Dyvendak and Marco
  Guini
  (1995), New Social Movements in Western Europe, University of
  Minnesota
  Press, Minneapolis. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0816626715/internetnonprofi"> New Social Movements from Amazon.Com.)
  

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):
  mcnair@junction.net
  
• 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.
  
• 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]
  
• 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:
  
  • Defining the Nonprofit Sector: A Cross-national
    Analysis (1997)
    Edited by Lester M. Salamon and Helmut K. Anheier. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0719049024/internetnonprofi"> Defining the Nonprofit Sector from Amazon.Com.)
    
  • The Emerging Nonprofit Sector: An Overview (Sept. 1996)
    Lester M. Salamon and Helmut K. Anheier. (Order href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0719048729/internetnonprofi"> The Emerging Nonprofit Sector from Amazon.Com.)
    
  
  
• 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 href="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 href="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 href="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 href="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 href="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 href="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 href="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.