Church groups play a leading role in counseling laid off executives. Nonprofits like Strive are making genuine progress training the least skilled for the workplace. The debt-counseling agencies are helping people cope with tattered finances and too much debt. Habitat for Humanity is spreading home ownership among low-income families. The nonprofit world is something of a counterforce to the economy's turbulence.
Problems exist, of course.
Philanthropies are being asked to address some of America's most pressing social ills, and that's tough to do. Nonprofits are supposed to be as efficient as business, yet also nurturing caregivers. Nonprofit management should combine the qualities of General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch and the late Mother Teresa. Perhaps most disturbing, the nonprofit world may be ill-prepared to spend well the flood of money coming its way. Nevertheless, civic society is flourishing in these prosperous times.