Understanding Nonprofit Organizations ─ Governance, Leadership, and Management

Understanding Nonprofit Organizations examines the most important issues that face today’s leaders and managers of nonprofit organizations through the writing of scholars, consultants, and practicing executives. It focuses on governing, leading, and managing nonprofit organizations and how such organizations differ from both the public and private sectors. Each part opens with a framing essay that identifies the central themes and issues and summarizes the significance of the contribution that each piece makes to the development of knowledge in the field.

Completely revised and updated, the third edition includes new articles on legal frameworks, philanthropy, managing volunteers and accountability, as well as an original essay on capacity building by Michele Cole. In addition, the third edition now features brand-new case studies adapted by C. Kenneth Meyer specifically for Understanding Nonprofit Organizationsmaking it an even more student-friendly text for graduate and upper-division undergraduate nonprofit organizations and management survey courses.

J. Steven Ott is Director of the Institute of Public and International Affairs and professor of political science at the University of Utah. He has served as a consultant to numerous nonprofit organizations and local and state government agencies, and has chaired the Executive Committee of the Nonprofit Management Education Section of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Dr. Ott has authored and edited many books, articles, and chapters on the nonprofit sector and its organizations, organization theory, organizational behavior, human resource management, administrative theory, accountability, and organizational culture.

Lisa A. Dicke is a professor of public administration at the University of North Texas. Dr. Dicke serves on the Executive Council and on the Committee of the Nonprofit Management Education Section of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Her research interests include organizational leadership, as well as accountability in government and nonprofit organizations, and her articles have been published in numerous books and journals.