As I continue my sojourn in the UK, I learned an interesting fact about the nonprofit sector here: There is a national government department devoted to “third sector affairs.” Even more amazing, this entity has created a multi-million pound fund to support capacity building among the nation’s 200,000 charities.

When I heard this today, from colleagues at a meeting, the only thing I could think to say was, “My God, it sounds like socialism!” When the laughter died down, I discovered that my work here, with UK organizations ACEVO and Capacity Builders, is being financed out of this fund. I always did love socialism.

Seriously, it is inconceivable that America would allow its government to take such an active role in supporting a large portion of the nonprofit sector economy, or is it? Until recently, it was equally inconceivable that our government would bail out the private sector’s financial institutions.

The closest thing the US has to this arrangement is the IRS oversight function. But that is really a policing responsibility, ensuring our sector is obeying the law. There is no unified federal (or state for that matter) effort to ensure the health of our nonprofits.

Tags: government, Nonprofit Sector, Public sector, sector blurring, travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Assorted Musings, Nonprofit Sector, Travels, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.