May 3, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
While both liberal and conservative idealogues have declared the surge in the size and wealth of the nonprofit world in the last 30 years a threat to aspects of American society, such fears are overblown, says Gerard Alexander in The Weekly Standard (April 23).
In his article for the conservative magazine, Mr. Alexander says that the growth of foundations, charities, and universities is startling. According to recent studies, he writes, annual expenditures of nonprofit groups reached $1-trillion three years ago, and such organizations employed 12 million Americans in 2001, double the number of employees in 1977.
While such growth is applauded by many observers as a sign of the country’s generosity and charitable spirit, some have viewed it with concern, he writes.
“Radicals on the left” are uneasy because they consider nonprofit organizations tools to “prop up capitalism by mitigating its worst effects,” the article says. On the other side of the political spectrum, right-wing thinkers say large philanthropies and universities are filled with left-leaning officials and professors, who, at their worst, support anti-American sentiment.
But Mr. Alexander, who is closely involved in the nonprofit world — he is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia, a consultant for the Searle Freedom Trust, and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute — disagrees with these criticisms.
The nonprofit world is actually quite ideologically diverse and, while free from many of the public pressures elected officials and businesses face, must adapt to changes in society. For example, as new donors emerge in the future, they will infuse new viewpoints into charities.
In addition, corporations are increasingly challenging charities in providing health care and education, which forces nonprofit groups to be more reactive to the needs of the people that rely on their services.
“The creativity and resilience of civil society in general and the profit-making economy in particular ensure that the nonprofit industrial complex adds to, and doesn’t endanger, our national life,” writes Mr. Alexander.
The article is available online.
