The nonprofit sector has never been under greater pressure to prove itself. With missions expanding and funding never more competitive, the sector suffers from a general impression that it is less efficient and more wasteful than its government and private competitors. Its funders, be they governments, charitable foundations, or individual givers, have never seemed so insistent about economy and results, while its clients, be they communities or individuals, have never been more demanding about efficiency and responsiveness. How the nonprofit sector does its work is becoming almost as important to funders and clients as what the sector actually delivers by way of goods and services.The problem is that there is virtually no agreement on just how nonprofits can improve. Unlike the federal government, the nonprofit sector is still at the beginning of its reform journey and its networks of consultants, management associations, and scholars are only beginning to develop the research base to know what reforms might work under what conditions. In Making Nonprofits Work, Paul C. Light charts the current trends of management reform in the nonprofit sector and assesses the climate for reform at the local and national levels. Light examines the four popular philosophies, or "tides," being advocated - scientific management, liberation management, war on waste, and watchful eye -offering examples and caveats from a portfolio of recent experience. Drawing on confidential interviews with leaders in nonprofit management reform, a detailed search of Internet sources, and a survey of state associations of nonprofit organizations, Light's findings suggest that the nonprofit sector has a remarkable opportunity to prevent the excesses and fadism that have dominated reform efforts in government and the private sector. He cautions leaders in the nonprofit sector to recognize the limits of various reform models, to set priorities carefully, and to limit investments of reform energy to a handful of priorities. Finally, he urges reformers to boost the sector's ability to implement new systems and reforms by focusing more closely on capacity building.
Paul C. Light is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at New York University. He is also Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he founded the Center for Public Service. Light is the author of numerous books on public service and management, among them Pathways to Nonprofit Excellence (2002), Government's Greatest Achievements (2002), Making Nonprofits Work (2000), and The New Public Service (1999).
"A thoughtful, sober, and comfortingly knowledgeable perspective on how efforts to change organizations have worked and not worked." -Tom Riley, philanthropyroundtable.org, 10/11/2000 |"[A] short, readable, and important book from the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service." -Melissa M. Stone, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 3/1/2002 |"In Making Nonprofits Work, Paul Light uses analogies from nature in his careful analysis of the calls for reform of management in the nonprofit sector. Although these statements might seem quite challenging at the onset, Light does a thoughtful job of making his case by drawing upon interviews with reform specialists and a survey of state nonprofit associations, framing his analysis as 'a reconnaissance at long range.'" -Patricia Frederickson, Boise State University, Public Administration Review |"A strength of Light's book is that he supports his assertions with data from his research, including confidential interviews with leaders in nonprofit management reform, a search of Internet sources, and a survey of state associations of nonprofit organizations.....It is also an important book for nonprofit leaders who are undertaking change efforts in their organization, as it provides perspectives on how such efforts have worked or not worked" -Lynn K. Jones, DSW, CSWM, Administration in Social Work, 1/1/2003
