Guest Editor's Introduction: The Nonprofit Mission and its Financing

Abstract

Excerpt from introduction: The idea of commercialism in the nonprofit sector sounds to some people like a paradox: Nonprofits are supposed to be essentially different from private firms for whom commercialism is their very lifeblood. To others, though, the uniqueness of nonprofit organizations is by no means self-evident; perhaps they are really not different from private firms, being just as influenced by business motives and opportunities for self-aggrandizement. Does it matter? Yes, it matters a great deal. At root is whether nonprofit organizations-which are growing rapidly-deserve the encouragement and subsidization they receive. The debate over the proper role, if any, for nonprofit organizations in a modem economy continues, periodically grabbing public attention: Private firms claim that they are victims of "unfair competition" from subsidized, tax-exempt nonprofits, and then pressure lawmakers to restrict nonprofits' commercial activities; the federal government revises the personal income tax in ways that, intentionally or not, affect incentives to donate to charitable nonprofits; and local governments introduce the latest device for extracting money from supposedly tax-exempt nonprofits...