INTRODUCTION. The past two decades have witnessed a groundswell of interest in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and nonprofit sectors (NPSs)

The past two decades have witnessed a groundswell of interest in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and nonprofit sectors (NPSs). For social scientists, the origin and behavior of sectors that stand outside market and state are tantalizing puzzles. The curiosity of US scholars has been piqued by rapid post-war nonprofit sector growth: By 1984 charitable nonprofit organizations (including foundations and churches) generated 5.6% of national income and 9.5% of employment (paid and volunteer) (Hodgkinson & Weitzman 1986). Increased regulation has accompanied growth, stimulating sector-level political mobilization by NPOs formerly organized only at the level of their own industries. Such efforts have supported research and conferences, improved the quality of aggregate data, and encouraged scholars to think in sectoral terms. Policy interest in NPOs, reflected in social-science research activity, has also emerged in Europe and the Third World (James 1989).

Yet sociologists have made little effort to develop systematic approaches to NPOs and NPSs per se; most research focusses on particular industries in which nonprofit organizations are prominent. This review develops a sociological perspective on the nonprofit form, emphasizing comparison among NPOs in different industries and societies. Thus we draw very selectively on voluminous specialized literatures (e.g. on health, the arts, voluntary associations, social services, community organizations, churches, social movement organizations), and we emphasize research focussing on "non-profitness" per se, including work in other disciplines.

For the United States, unless otherwise specified, "nonprofit organizations" are those falling under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code (a category including most nonprofit hospitals, cultural organizations, traditional charities, foundations, schools, daycare centers and foundations, among others), or the smaller, related 501(c)4 category (civic leagues and social welfare organizations, which are denied tax-deductible contributions but which may engage in some political or commercial activities from which (c)3s are barred); these do not include such mutual-benefit associations as labor unions, workers or consumers cooperatives, veterans organizations, or political parties, which the law treats separately. 501(c)3s and 4s are subject to the nondistribution constraint (which proscribes distributing net income as dividends or above-market remuneration); they must serve one of several broadly defined collective purposes; and they receive certain tax advantages (Simon 1987). In discussing nonprofit sectors outside the United States, we vary terminology according to national legal and political traditions.

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