In this view, the federal and state governments might be responsible for providing economic safety nets, establishing minimum standards of living, and creating incentives for private philanthropy and volunteerism. Charitable organizations, independent and autonomous, would enhance the quality and variety of community life by providing direct services on behalf of government or their own donors and supporters. Government responsibility for the safety net would free charitable organizations to carry out their independent mission of providing assistance based on local preferences, staff assessments of priorities, and donor intentions. This framework would make use of the advantages each sector offers. Only government can raise enough money to finance income transfers and pay for basic welfare.
Charitable organizations are generally better at delivering direct services.
Something like this has developed over the past six decades. Government and charitable nonprofit organizations have built a partnership and work in specialized niches that broadly fulfill public preferences and expectations at national and local levels. As Lester Salamon shows, the expansion of the welfare state and the nonprofit sector have been causally related. The nonprofit sector has become the principal vehicle for the delivery of government-supported social services. Government, correspondingly, is the principal source of finance for nonprofit social service agencies.