Nonprofits for Hire

by Steven Rathgeb Smith; Michael Lipsky

• ISBN13: 9780674626386
• ISBN10: 0674626389
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-06-30
• Publisher: Harvard University Press

Summary

In recent years, government's primary response to the emergent problems of homelessness, hunger, child abuse, health care, and AIDS has been generated through nonprofit agencies funded by taxpayer money. As part of the widespread movement for privatization, these agencies represent revolutionary changes in the welfare state. Steven Smith and Michael Lipsky demonstrate that this massive shift in funds has benefits and drawbacks. Given the breadth of government funding of nonprofit agencies, this first study of the social, political, and organizational effects of this service strategy is an essential contribution to the current raging debates on the future of the welfare state.

Table of Contents

The Turn to Nonprofits
Contracting for Services in the Welfare State	p. 3
The Scope of Nonprofit Service Organizations	p. 5
Issues for the Welfare State	p. 11
Nonprofit Organizations and Community	p. 20
Nonprofits as Manifestations of Community	p. 22
Community and the Theory of Nonprofit Organizations	p. 26
Toward a Political Explanation of Nonprofit Organizations	p. 31
Three Types of Nonprofit Service Agencies	p. 37
The Contracting Regime
Introduction to Part II	p. 43
The Political Economy of Nonprofit Revenues	p. 46
Historical Background	p. 47
Impact at the Service Delivery Level	p. 57
The Reagan Era and a Changing Federal Role	p. 62
Guardians of Community and Issues of Governance	p. 72
Boards of Directors	p. 73
Executive Directors	p. 79
Boards, Executives, and Community	p. 88
Service Providers for the Welfare State	p. 98
Professionalization	p. 100
Deprofessionalization and Government Funding	p. 108
Volunteers and Organizational Capacity	p. 111
The New Street-level Bureaucrats	p. 115
Services and Clients under Contracting	p. 120
Imperatives of Public and Nonprofit Service Organizations	p. 121
Significance of Differences between Government and Nonprofits	p. 127
Changes in Practices under Contracting	p. 131
Dilemmas of Management in Nonprofit Organizations	p. 147
Understanding the Nonprofit Organization	p. 148
Cash Flow	p. 151
The Dance of Contract Renewal	p. 157
The Question of Goal Succession	p. 163
Implications for the Welfare State
The New Politics of the Contracting Regime	p. 171
Individual Agencies in the Political Process	p. 173
The Rise of Associations of Nonprofit Providers	p. 177
The Corporatist Politics of the Contracting Regime	p. 179
The Nonprofit Sector under Attack	p. 182
Privatization in Human Services: A Critique	p. 188
Why Does Government Contract with Nonprofit Agencies?	p. 191
Performance Assessment	p. 199
The Irony of Privatization through Contracting	p. 203
Government, Nonprofit Agencies, and the Welfare State	p. 206
Issues of Citizenship	p. 207
Contracting as Symbolic Politics	p. 211
Toward a Balanced Approach to Communal Provision	p. 215
Tables	p. 233
Notes	p. 245
Index	p. 285
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.