Contents

§ 1.3 PRINCIPLES OF CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS LAW PHILOSOPHYIt is not possible, in a book of this nature, to fully capture the philosophicalunderpinnings of the nonprofit sector. This task has been accomplished, however,by Brian O’Connell, while president of Independent Sector. 47 In a foreword to Mr.O’Connell’s work, John W. Gardner stated this basic truth: “All Americans interactwith voluntary or nonprofit agencies and activities regularly, although theyare often unaware of this fact.” 48 Still, the educational process must continue, for,as Mr. Gardner wrote, “The sector enhances our creativity, enlivens our communities,nurtures individual responsibility, stirs life at the grassroots, and reminds usthat we were born free.” 49 Mr. O’Connell’s collection includes thoughts fromsources as diverse as Max Lerner (“the associative impulse is strong in Americanlife; no other civilization can show as many secret fraternal orders, businessmen’s‘service clubs,’ trade and occupational associations, social clubs, garden clubs,women’s clubs, church clubs, theater groups, political and reform associations,veterans’ groups, ethnic societies, and other clusterings of trivial or substantialimportance” 50 ), Daniel J. Boorstin (“in America, even in modern times, communitiesexisted before governments were here to care for public needs” 51 ), Merle Curti(“voluntary association with others in common causes has been thought to bestrikingly characteristic of American life” 52 ), John W. Gardner (“For many countries. . . monolithic central support of all educational, scientific, and charitableactivities would be regarded as normal . . . [b]ut for the United States it wouldmean the end of a great tradition” 53 ), Richard C. Cornuelle (“We have been uniquebecause another sector, clearly distinct from the other two, has, in the past, borne aheavy load of public responsibility” 54 ), John D. Rockefeller III (“The third sector is. . . the seedbed for organized efforts to deal with social problems” 55 ), WaldemarA. Neilsen (“the ultimate contribution of the Third Sector to our national life—namely what it does to ensure the continuing responsiveness, creativity and selfrenewalof our democratic society” 56 ), Richard W. Lyman (“an array of its [theindependent sector’s] virtues that is by now fairly familiar: its contributions topluralism and diversity, its tendency to enable individuals to participate in civiclife in ways that make sense to them and help to combat that corrosive feeling ofpowerlessness that is among the dread social diseases of our era, its encouragementof innovation and its capacity to act as a check on the inadequacies of government”57 ), and himself (“The problems of contemporary society are morecomplex, the solutions more involved and the satisfactions more obscure, but thebasic ingredients are still the caring and the resolve to make things better”). 5847 O’Connell, America’s Voluntary Spirit (New York: The Foundation Center, 1983).48 Id. at xi.49 Id. at xv.50 Id. at 81.51 Id. at 131.52 Id. at 162.53 Id. at 256.54 Id. at 278.55 Id. at 356.56 Id. at 368.57 Id. at 371.58 Id. at 408. A companion book by the author addresses this point in additional detail, and traces the origins anddevelopment of a hypothetical charitable organization to illustrate the applicability of various federal and statelaws concerning nonprofit organizations. See Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A LegalGuide, 4th ed. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005). 15