Nonprofits as Policy Solutions to the Burden of Government

This book addresses a specific subset of nonprofits that are chartered with a single mission: decrease the burden of government. Designing and engaging nonprofits to lessen the burden of government requires a specific description and acknowledgement of the burden to be lessened, and these may include the provision of infrastructure, the relief of debt, or the provision of general public services that are not motivated by charity. It also requires the assignment of specific operating powers to the nonprofit including the power of eminent domain. This book explores these and other related topics including the avoidance of resource dependence on government when attempting to reduce its burden.

The book is addressed to the policy makers and rule makers who design policies that affect the ability of the nonprofit to effectively lessen the burden of government. It is also addressed to public administrators in search of innovative ways of implementing these policies consistent with the laws, and to the creative nonprofit managers who are charged with carrying out the mission often in collaboration with the government or other entities. To the advanced student in all related fields, the author offers not only material for discussion, but enables discovery of what is possible by giving key examples of organizations meeting the terms and objective of lessening a significant burden of government.

Auteur

Herrington J. Bryce was a senior economist at the Urban Institute, a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow, a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard and a visiting professor in regional economics and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught micro economic theory and public finance at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was director of the program in legal and budget studies at the University College at the University of Maryland. He currently teaches courses at the College of William & Mary in nonprofits but mostly in corporate financial strategy and cost management-heavily reflected in this text. He has published extensively and has served on many state, local and federal government advisory committees. He has a PhD in economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and a Clu and ChFc from the American College.

Résumé

"I recommend Nonprofits as Policy Solutions to the Burden of Government to policy practitioners, students of nonprofit scope and theory, and anyone interested in intersections among public policy, law, and the nonprofit sector. Bryce has brought to our attention nonprofit law's expansive definition of 'charitable,' ... [the book] invites its creative application as a strategy for policymaking and implementation, and equips us with the knowledge to do so in pursuit of the public interest."

Professor Christopher Horne, Nonprofit Policy Forum

"This book made for an informed discussion in an American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) e-learning Book Talk Program: Nonprofits as Policy Solutions to the Burden of Government, hosted May 10, 2017 for its members."

ASPA is the leading interdisciplinary public service organization that advances the art, science, teaching and practice of public and non-profit administration, www.aspanet.org.

"Herrington Bryce has written a terrific book on the possibilities of involvement and collaboration of nonprofits in lessening the government's burden in infrastructure delivery while not denying the essential roles of firms in any such public-private partnership. He notes that collaboration, properly designed, can be mutually enhancing to the public's benefit."

Dr. Rick Geddes, Professor, Department of Policy Analysis & Management and Director, Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy and a member of the core faculty at the Institute for Public Affairs at Cornell University.

"Herrington Bryce has written a fascinating book about a little-known aspect of infrastructure. He answers the questions about what makes a properly structured nonprofit model applicable and the required capacity and powers to make them work to reduce the burden of government even in the hard matter of infrastructure."

Richard G. Little, AICP, active infrastructure policy consultant, National Academy of Construction member, Director of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment of the National Research Council (NRC), California State Commission on Infrastructure member, Editor: Public Works Management & Policy.

"The topic is important and the coverage is comprehensive. I think this will make a fine addition to the reading material in a number of policy and also in nonprofit classes."

Dr. Wolfgang Bielefeld, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and former editor Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

"The topics and ideas of this book deserve our attention as the U.S. searches for new ways to improve infrastructure while relieving the burdens on government."

Dr. Neil S. Grigg, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, expertise: infrastructure, design, research and management as both an academic and top-level government official. See his review in Public Works Management and Policy, June 27, 2017.

"Bryce's book provides readers with a comprehensive look at an increasingly relevant aspect of policy making and policy implementation. His work represents a substantial contribution to the conversation about the topic of nonprofits as relievers of governmental burdens, providing a wealth of detail and insight into the perils and promise of these specially crafted nonprofits. Current and future policy makers, public administrators, and nonprofit leaders would be wise to utilize Bryce's book as a roadmap of possibilities for meeting the needs of the citizenry."

Michelle Wooddell, Public Administration Review

Contenu

Preface | xv

Chapter 1 Purpose, Policy, Theory, Definitions and Context | 1

Purpose | 1

The Burden of Government | 2

Perspective, Collaboration, Competence | 5

Traditional, Nontraditional, Burden | 9

Organizational Design | 11

Prices, Profits and Nonprofit Motives | 12

The Context | 13

Dimension of the Problem in the United States | 13

Why the Nonprofit Option | 16

Toward a Supporting Theory | 17

Bibliography | 18

Chapter 2 Designing, Empowering and Engaging the Nonprofit to Lessen the

Burden of Government | 19

The National Trust for Historic Preservation | 19

Crafting the Intent to Lessen the Burden of Government | 19

Federal and State Designation of an Eligible Burden | 21

Classification of Nonprofits as Doers and Facilitators | 22

The Planks on Which to Design a Nonprofit to Reduce the Burden

of Government | 26

Plank 1: Money | 28

Plank 2: Marketing and Persuading | 32

Plank 3: Membership and Public | 32

Plank 4: Management | 33

Plank 5: The Mission | 35

Plank 6: Collaboration and Cooperation | 37

Plank 7: Tax Exemption | 37

Plank 8: Powers to Act | 38

Plank 9: Accountability | 39

Plank 10: Legitimacy | 39

Summary and Preview | 40

Bibliography | 40

Chapter 3 Empowering the Nonprofit to Lessen the Burden of

Government | 43

The Creation of the Corporation | 44

Incorporation: Process, Purpose, Powers | 45

The Powers of the Nonprofit Corporation | 48

Prohibitions | 50

Financial Advantages and Disadvantages of Exemption | 53

Some Factors that Threaten the Loss of Tax-Exampt Status

Under 501(c)(3) | 66

Summary and Preview | 68

B…