Perseus Academic: Understanding Nonprofit Organizations by J. Steven Ott

"The second edition of Understanding Nonprofit Organizations will be applauded by students, instructors, and practitioners. The explosion of recent research mandated an update of Steve Ott’s valuable and successful first edition. This eagerly anticipated new edition is a major revision and adds many recent articles by key scholars and adds fresh new topics required for anyone wishing to understand this fascinating dynamic sector. Steve Ott and Lisa Dicke’s updated Understanding Nonprofit Organizations will be a standard assigned text for nonprofit courses and should be found on practitioners’ “must read” lists. —Russell A. Cargo, Ph.D., Principal, Third Sector Services, LLC, and Senior Fellow, Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, University of Missouri at Kansas City

“I am delighted that Steve Ott and Lisa Dicke have prepared the second edition of this valuable book, Understanding Nonprofit Organizations, as a resource to help inform and educate those who lead or manage nonprofit organizations. An undertaking of this magnitude is very demanding, so we are fortunate that Steve and Lisa have chosen to invest their energies in creating the next generation of this important volume. … It is a welcome contribution to the literature of the nonprofit sector, because it explains in useful terms what we need to know about nonprofit organizations, how they function, and how they can effectively be led and managed. These chapters have been written by leading scholars and professionals, people who know their topics very well, and they are organized and presented in ways that bring important clarity to the management of this new world of nonprofit organizations. We are fortunate to have this valuable resource to inform our work in these exciting times.” —David O. Renz, from the foreword

Reviews from prior editions

“Professor Ott is a leader in nonprofit management education. He has assembled a group of authors who have a great deal of knowledge in the field. The reader provides a great overview of the subject.”—Naomi Bailin Wish, Center for Public Service, Seton Hall University

“Steven Ott has assembled an outstanding collection of readings on the nonprofit sector. It should be required reading for classes on this topic.”—Jeffrey L. Brudney, University of Georgia

“This compendium of readings delves into ongoing challenges of nonprofit leadership, management, and governance. The unique contribution of this work is the exploration of how the distinctive character of the sector is being transformed by the need to serve as a proxy for local government and emulate the private sector—a great addition to graduate courses in nonprofit management.”—Jennifer Alexander, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University