Staying in the Game: the Reaction of Nonprofit Organizations To Federal Cutbacks

Abstract

_N v 'ONPROFIT organizations comprise America's (Cornuelle 1965; Etzioni 1972; Levitt 1973; Nielsen 1979; Orlans 1980), is, that vast array of institutions and associations whose common characteristics are they are private, do not operate for profit, and are devoted to serving the general welfare not simply the welfare of their members or supporters (Nielsen 1979: 1). The interaction of the Third Sector with the other two sectors government and the economy exemplifies the flexibility, adaptability, and complexity of American pluralism (Nielsen 1979: 6). As consequence of block grant programs created the early 1970s, such as the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a collection of private and semi-public groups and agencies [nonprofits] moved into full partnership with the national, state, and local administering federal (Kettl 1981: 366). By 1980, private nonprofit organizations received larger share of their total revenues from the federal government than from all private giving: $40.4 billion vs. $25.5 billion (Salamon and Abramson 1982: xvii). The need to better understand the dynamics of the linkages between the public and private sectors was recognized by Salamon his recent research on governmental-nonprofit interactions (1981, 1982). He noted in almost every policy sphere, Federal operations now involve complex collage of widely assorted tools [including subcontracts] mobilizing diverse collection of different types of actors to perform host of different roles frequently confusing combinations (Salamon 1981: 259). This has resulted program structure characterized by authority parceled chunks among number of different actors (public and private) which complicates the task of coordination and taxes the integrative institutions of governments (Salamon 1981: 262). Yet, as Salamon laments, there has been a virtual absence of systematic comparative work analyzing different tools or examining the changing forms of action as whole (1981: 263).