December 7, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Nonprofits & Government: Collaboration & Conflict
edited by Elizabeth T. Boris and C. Eugene Steuerle
With 1.5 million nonprofit groups registered in the United States, policy makers and charity managers who wish to make informed decisions need to understand the role of charities in relation to government, argue Elizabeth T. Boris, the founding director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, and C. Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and a codirector of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
This book examines the ways in which the nonprofit world interacts with government and business through financial, legal, and ideological connections.
The introduction and the first two chapters discuss the relationship between charities and government, and compare the services and resources of both. Two chapters focus on nonprofit tax rules, and others look at advocacy, government and corporate investment in nonprofit organizations, and the relations between charity and government in other countries.
In “Nonprofits and Federalism,” Carol J. De Vita and Eric C. Twombly discuss the shift in responsibility for human-services provision from the federal government to nonprofit groups in the mid-1990s. They review the causes and implications of this transition, including increased competition, accountability, and charities’ access to the political process.
The constantly shifting relationship between government and charity forces the nonprofit sector “to respond to new opportunities and perceived threats, and to be flexible and adaptable in response to change,” Ms. De Vita and Mr. Twombly conclude.
Publisher: Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037; (202) 261-5687; fax (202) 833-6231; http://www.uipress.org; 453 pages; $29.50; ISBN 0-87766-732-2.
