The 19th century social-philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at American eagerness to band together and help others. Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different types-religious, moral, serious, futile, very general, and very limited, immensely large, and very minute. In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge. And in the past century, the nonprofit sector has exploded in size.
Many nonprofits are multi-billion dollar enterprises.
They have huge payrolls and the latest in high-tech office equipment. Northwestern University economist Burton Weisbrod says many nonprofits are hard to distinguish from major, for-profit corporations. These are not small, grass roots organizations that are run by local people. These are big businesses. Now the majority of nonprofits are actually small to medium-sized businesses.