The Nonprofit FAQ

Does a strong nonprofit sector make any difference?

Bill Bishop wrote to the mailing list Civic-Values on January 8, 1995: Robert Putnam, a Harvard prof, has an interesting article coming out in Journal of Democracy. It's based on a book he wrote in '93, Making Democracy Work. The book and the article contend a) that the density of civic organizations predicts a region's economic health, governmental efficiency, personal happiness and faith in public institutions, and b) that Americans are abandoning traditional civic organizations, from Lions Clubs to bowling leagues. (Order http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691037388/internetnonprofi"> Making Democracy Work from Amazon.Com. A small royalty will be paid that helps support this site.) I came to Putnam in looking for what caused some regions to be rich while others remained poor. The reason Tupelo, Miss., for example, has become a center of high wages and good schools, I think, is because of a 50-year tradition of widespread civic involvement. Putnam found the same thing in Italy. The best indicator of current-day wealth in Italy, he says, is the number of choral societies that existed in a region 100 years ago. In all the talk of why people are mad, Putnam's analysis is the one that makes sense. It has remained somewhat obscure until recently, when Broder and Will mentioned his upcoming article in their columns. (Will turned Putnam's analysis into support for the Republican agenda, taking a complicated, interesting idea and steaming it limp.) I realize there is a great cry for responsibility, for citizens to quit whining and begin acting AS citizens. People are being asked to know more, act more, etc. All of this is asking more that will ever be given, I fear. If Putnam is right -- and I think he is -- good civic values don't come with knowledge or an individual's decision to become a good citizen. Civic values are born because people, naturally and in the ordinary course of their day, meet other people face to face. In civic towns (and I lived in one) people don't think about being involved. They are expected to participate. It's not even a question. Anyway, pick up the book. It will blow your mind. Putnam Barber, editor of the Nonprofit FAQ, added this note on September 28, 2007: Robert Putnam's writings on civic engagement have continued in the years since Making Democracy Work was published. Perhaps his most famous publication is Bowling Alone, which documents the decline in engaged community activity across a wide variety of meansures. (An article based on the thesis of the book was published in the Journal of Democracy in January 1995 and can be read online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html.) The metaphor contained in the title is drawn from the data that show bowling alleys have, in general, increasing business while at the same time formally organized amateur bowling leagues are declining in numbers and in membership. Putnam's view that there has been a widespread decline in engaged community activity across much of the nation (or the world) has been challenged by other observers. They have offered many counter examples, including data from other countries collected by The Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University (http://www.jhu.edu/~ccss/) which suggest an increase in the scope of nonprofits and their work in many countries. The director of the center, Lester Salamon, has been quoted describing the current epoch as "the associational century." These statistical investigations provide a useful context for the work that every nonprofit must do to connect with the communities it serves and find the resources -- human and financial -- that are required for its activities. Certainly the experience of limits on money, on volunteers, on public recognition and support, on morale for staff and board, is common. Many supporters and consultants who work with nonprofits urge that one effective counter to both the challenge to morale and the limits on resources is to focus clearly and consistently on the mission of the organization -- what do we do and what difference does it make to our community. One accessible example of a consultant who gives this sort of advice to clients and in a wide variety of online resources is Hildy Gottlieb of the Community-Driven Institute (http://www.help4nonprofits.com/). The website offers commentary on various topics, links to a blog, an opportunity to subscribe to a regular email newsletter, and books and other materials available for purchase. A very early FAQ item; additional commentary 9/27/07 PB