August 12, 1999 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Nonprofits
Edited by Elizabeth T. Boris and C. Eugene Steuerle
This collection contains 10 essays that analyze government’s imprint on non-profit organizations — especially in light of recent legislation to restructure welfare and the tax treatment of charities.
It is the first book published by the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, in Washington. Ms. Boris is director of the center, and Mr. Steuerle is a senior fellow at the institute.
In one essay, Dennis R. Young, a professor at Case Western Reserve University and president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, writes that the relationship between charity and government must be viewed through an economic lens as well as through a historical one. He explores monetary theories that define non-profit groups as supplementary, complementary, or adversarial to government.
Those definitions are subsequently fleshed out by other authors in sections that examine the flow of money between government and non-profit organizations, the influence of non-profit groups on public policy, and the ways in which the actions and responsibilities of charity and government overlap in foreign countries.
In another essay, Princeton University Professor Robert Wuthnow examines the controversy over government support of religious and arts organizations — including the so-called “charitable choice” rider in 1996 legislation that overhauled the welfare system, a provision that entitled churches to receive federal funds for social services.
And Evelyn Brody, an associate professor of law at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Joseph J. Cordes, a professor of economics at George Washington University, sift through some current ideas for changing the tax system and weigh the pros and cons for non-profit groups.
Publisher: Urban Institute Press, 2100 M Street, N.W., Washington 20037; (202) 261-5744 or (877) 847-7377; fax (202) 467-5775; 383 pages; $29.50 paper, $57.50 cloth; I.S.B.N. 0-87766-687-3 paper, 0-87766-686-5 cloth.
