Introduction

Surely, most people in nonprofit organizations1 will readily recognize that their management practices have improved considerably in recent years. Several international studies from the 1990s emphasize the growth experienced by the third — or nonprofit — sector. Some of the most relevant examples include McCarthy, Hodgkinson and Sumaruwalla (1992), Salamon (1995), and Salamon and Anheier (1997). For instance, a comparative study undertaken by Johns Hopkins University (1997) reveals that, in the 1980s, one out of every seven new jobs in France belonged to the third sector, while in Germany the number was only slightly lower: one out of eight. Specifically, French nonprofits employed 578,106 people on a full-time basis and 431,181 part-time workers (Le Monde, February 3, 1998). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the number of Northern civil society organizations with international programs grew from 1600 in 1980 to more than 2500 in 1990. At the same time, within the developing world, the number of local civil society organizations with a relief and development focus has also increased. The Alliance for a Global community reports that there are more than 250,000 Southern nonprofits.2