Non-profit research merits support globally

To the Editor:

I wholeheartedly agree with Kenneth Giunta’s forceful arguments for the funding of international research (“International Research: a Sound Policy for Foundations,” My View, November 18).

Using all of the arguments advanced by Mr. Giunta, one could make an equally strong case for the support of funding research focused on the non-profit sector and philanthropy.

Thanks to the leadership and contributions of Virginia Hodgkinson, Lester Salamon, and Elizabeth Boris, among others, we have made quantum leaps in this country in non-profit research. Prior to 1980, research on the sector was terra incognita.

However, an even stronger case can be made for the need to fund research here and abroad on the emerging non-profit sector around the world. We know about the “associational revolution” — the unprecedented growth in non-profit institutions and other institutions of civil society around the world. But this revolution has taken place, for the most part, in an information vacuum. If funding for non-profit-sector research is hard to come by in the U.S. and the West, such funding is practically non-existent in developing countries.

If we believe that non-profit institutions strengthen democracy (and vice versa) and generally play a vital role in our lives, then research and analysis on the sector becomes as essential as it is in other sectors. The same probing questions we ask about the role of the non-profit sector — its effectiveness, accountability, governance, etc. — in this country need to be asked about non-profit organizations around the world.

In short, a “global non-profit-sector research fund” needs to be created to encourage and fund the creation of good-quality, new knowledge about the non-profit world — both within individual nations and across borders — to provide a context for policy decisions. U.S. grant makers can take the lead in creating such an entity.

Russy D. Sumariwalla
Co-Chair
Nonprofit Sector Research Fund
The Aspen Institute
Washington