PADP 7210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 30: Westview Press
19 Nov 2020
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PADP 7210 Intro to NonProfit
Reading 30: Nonprofit Organizations & Community
Citation:
Ott, J. S., & Dicke, L. A. (Eds.). (2016). The Nature of the Nonprofit Sector (3rd ed.). Boulder,
CO: Westview Press.
Chapter 17. Nonprofit Organizations & Community
I. Nonprofits as Manifestations of Community
• Community → “group of people who are socially interdependent, who
participate together in discussion and decision-making, and who share certain
practices that both define the community and are nurtured by it” (204)
o Nonprofits = tangible, significant manifestations of community
• Qualities of Community
o Community is self-identifying → individual elects to consider self-part
of larger collectivity
o Community fueled by voluntary action → people make community
organizations work because they want to make a difference
▪ Voluntary organizations particularly strong because
autonomous & not subject to market vagaries or changing
governmental priorities
• Enjoy special sort of legitimacy because existence
derives from free association rather than law or
anticipated profit
o Communities express values → space where people engage with
others in common enterprises of high salience
▪ Communities give expression to values through development
of formal & informal organizations
▪ Communities provide context within which groups can
organize to solve common problems
• Communities can incorporate problem-solving agencies as nonprofits →
nonprofits as communities made manifest
o Legal status of nonprofit joins two important aspects of community:
▪ The moral community, in which individuals share certain
values & social concerns
▪ The legal community, which defines the rules of governance &
participation for organization
o Nonprofits as service-providing institutions AND political institutions
that play key roles in citizen representation & governance
▪ Through organizational expression of nonprofits, political
elites able to contact & interact with communities when they
attempt to aid or contain them
▪ Nonprofits provide link between citizenry & government
• Any changes in their character may produce major
shifts in citizen-government relationship
• Pathways to Participation → most straightforward way to demonstrate that
nonprofit service organizations are manifestations of community is to recount
role of individuals in organizations
