Content area
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit OrganizationsVol. 12, No. 3, September 2001 ( C 2001)Ronan Cormacain, Kerry OHalloran, and Arthur Williamson, Charity Law Matters,The Stationery Office, Belfast, 2001.Following in the wake of recent government and voluntary sector attention
to the area of charity law in Scotland, England and Wales, the publication of the
aptly entitled Charity Law Matters is timely and thought-provoking.This book stems from a research project carried out by the Centre for Voluntary
Action Studies at the University of Ulster concerning the appropriateness of charity
law in Northern Ireland as a framework for charitable activity. It is divided into
three main parts, each one dealing with a different stage of the research project. A
helpful overview chapter at the beginning of the book describes the objectives of
the research, the mechanics of carrying it out, and a summary of the key findings
and recommendations for change.The first part of the book provides a straightforward account of the sources
and development of charity law in Northern Ireland and outlines principal features
of the current framework. The legislative and administrative differences between
Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom are briefly described and there
are a number of separate chapters that examine specific aspects. These include the
application of the cypres doctrine by the courts in order to save gifts to charity that
would otherwise fail or lapse; the regulation of fundraising activities; the remit
of the Charities Branch; and, the fiscal benefits of charitable status. The second
part of the book offers a practical insight, albeit a limited one, into the nature
of charitable activity in Northern Ireland from the standpoint of senior managers
of charitable organizations as well as lawyers and representatives from other related professional and government bodies. The third and final part of the book
evaluates the ability of the current framework of charity law to foster charitable
activity particularly with regard to ameliorating the specific problems endemic to
todays ostensibly postconflict society. Of particular note is the nonrecognition of
peace and reconciliation initiatives and cross-community development as charitable activities. The concluding chapter recognises the need for further research,
recommends a number of future changes, and proposes a comprehensive review
of charity law in Northern Ireland in the hope of eventual reform.295Book Reviews The Third Sector in Ireland0957-8765/01/0600-0295$19.50/1 C 2001 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University296 Book ReviewsThis is not a standard text or reference book on Northern Ireland charity law.
Rather it provides a commendable introduction to the subject and serves as a useful
research resource for legal academics and practitioners not only in Northern Ireland
but also further afield, and the books accessible format makes it easy to read. The
authors set themselves an ambitious task and because of the wide range of issues
covered, the depth of analysis is inevitably limited. The recommendations of the
report may not be entirely new or radical, but they are interesting and important
nonetheless, and help raise the profile of charity law issues. Researchers, generally,
and those charged with the difficult task of interpreting and administering the law
of charities will find it worth a look.Ruth Glenn
The School of Law
Queens University BelfastFergus OFerrall,Citizenship and Public Service:Voluntary and Statutory Relationships in Irish Healthcare, The Adelaide Hospital Society with Dundalgan
Press, Dublin, 2000.Fergus OFerralls book was released before the publication of the governments White Paper, Supporting Voluntary Activity, but the issues raised by this
book (and analyzed therein) nonetheless prove to be timely. This book is a great
starting point for any observer or scholar of the relationship between the state and
the third sector in Ireland. OFerrall outlines the role that the voluntary sector has
played in the major developments in Irish health care in the twentieth century.
He analyses the shifting relationship between the state and the voluntary sector
in healthcare and the increasing dependency of voluntary hospitals on state funding since the 1950s. Despite a long and very important relationship occurring
between these two actors, OFerrall notes the lack of: (i) a policy on the sector;(ii) a framework for an articulation of the relationship between the sector and
the state; (iii) a definition of voluntary; and (iv) an adequate public philosophy
legitimizing voluntary action in Irish society. For OFerrall the nub of the argument
revolves around active citizenship and the necessity of having a vibrant voluntary
sector. He states the active citizen involved in shaping civic life is at the core of
a public philosophy which is particularly appropriate in a democratic Republic.
He then posits civic republicanism as pertinent to the Ireland of today.Although the White Paper was subsequently released, the issues raised by
OFerrall still remain to be addressed; several of these are currently being considered. Indeed, OFerralls book indicates the importance of statutory health agencies
in any analysis of the relationship between the state and the voluntary sector inBook Reviews 297Ireland; through his analysis, their relative invisibility in the current policy-making
climate becomes apparent. In exploring the relationship between the Irish state and
third sector, he presents a case study of the newest hospital in the state born from the
amalgamation of three preexisting voluntary hospitals and their relocationten
miles from Dublins city centrenear their previous sites. While problems in the
governance and management of this hospital received plenty of media attention
at the time, OFerralls work is concerned with the issue of governance and autonomy within the sector in the context of a dependence on state funding. His analysis
nicely captures the contradictions and tensions inherent in such a relationship.I would recommend this book to all scholars of statevoluntary sector relationships if only to read his unpacking of the tensions and dynamics of such
relationships and the potential implications of these for the sectors autonomy,
governance, and development.Freda Donoghue
Policy Research Centre
National College of IrelandBook Reviews The International Third SectorJames E. Austin, The Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses
Succeed through Strategic Alliances, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2000.This book is based on fifteen case studies of business and nonprofit alliances.
From these cases, Austin develops an insightful framework for cross-sector collaborations. Collaborations between businesses and nonprofit organizations (NPOs)
are depicted along a three-stage continuum, the Collaboration Continuum. The
relationships between businesses and NPOs may progress from a donor/charity
model to a strategic partnership in which the alliance is central to the missions of
the partners. At this stage, the business partners Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
is usually placed on the NPOs board, perhaps even serving as chairperson.Collaborators enter into alliances in order to receive value that otherwise
would not exist. In the earlier stages of the Collaboration Continuum, partners
receive benefits from each other. In the most committed alliance, partners create
value that is unique to their relationship and not duplicated by another association.
Austin spends considerable time describing different types of benefits derived
from collaborations as the alliance progresses along the Collaboration Continuum.
Partners must be motivated to continue their commitment, and creating value for
ones partner that is unique to the relationship is the best way to ensure alliance
continuation.298 Book ReviewsAfter describing the Collaboration Continuum and how collaborators bring
value to their associations, the author discusses determinants of effective alliance
management (i.e., Alliance Enablers). Alliance partners must give the relationship priority. Top management from alliance members have to be involved in
the management of the alliance and need to remain in contact with member organization peers. Organizations must be connected beyond the CEO level, however, to ensure that the alliance survives changes in organizational leadership.
In the most committed alliances, the importance of the alliance becomes central to partnering organizations, meshed within the partners cultures and missions. Partners must hold each other accountable for achieving meaningful outcomes, and the corporate partner should be involved in planning activities of the
nonprofit.Austins work is important in that it provides more than a framework for
understanding different relational levels of business and nonprofit alliances; it also
provides managerial insight into how to manage the collaboration. The book is
written for leaders in both businesses and NPOs. The emphasis on creating value
for ones partner is also helpful in getting managers to view the alliance from their
partners viewpoint.The value to academicians is less direct than for the intended practitioner
audience. However, the Collaboration Continuum is a parsimonious framework
for describing cross-sector associations that can be developed and refined in future
research. The determinants of alliance success that Austin describes are also worthy
of future research. Academicians may find useful an article by Austin (2000) which
is a precise derivative of the book; Strategic collaboration between nonprofits and
businesses, Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(1), 6997.Austins work is seminal in that it provides a mental model for a topic that
is elaborate and new. With some exceptions, most researchers have investigated
collaborations between NPOs and businesses at the micro level, for example,
comarketing agreements, cause-related marketing, and sponsorships. Austin looks
at these cross-sector associations at a higher level of abstraction that provides much
in the way of managerial guidance and research direction.The author could have better delineated the distinction between a collaboration involving the business and nonprofit sectors and a strategic alliance. At
what point does an alliance become strategic? The distinction between a collaborative association and a strategic alliance is blurred. At times the reader wonders
how a corporationwhich is in business to increase shareholder wealthinitiates
an alliance with an NPO for a social purpose, and how this corporation eventually
becomes so committed to the cause that it places the social enterprise with the NPO
in a position of strategic corporate importance, becoming part of the corporations
culture and mission?In conclusion, managers in corporations and NPOs who are interested in
collaborating in a social enterprise will find this book a cornerstone in influencingBook Reviews 299their thinking of these relationships. Managers will gain appreciable insights into
how to add value for their partner and how to develop an effective alliance structure.Walter W. Wymer Jr.Christopher Newport UniversityJames Cutt and Vic Murray, Accountability and Effectiveness Evaluation in Nonprofit Organizations, Routledge, New York, 2000.This book is probably not what you expect from the title. It is not a how to
manual for would-be evaluators of nonprofit organizations nor it is a polemic on
the need for the sector to be more accountable. If you are looking for a book from
either of these categories, you should have no trouble finding one. On balance, if
what you seek is a stimulating intellectual discussion of some of the major issues
involved in the third sector accountability revolution, you have found your book.
It is a book that fills a critical need in the nonprofit literature.James Cutt and Vic Murray have written a serious and scholarly book on evaluation and accountability in the third sector. Using material from the literature and
from their own research, they explore the philosophical and methodological issues
that currently face the nonprofit world. This book, largely a report of a research
project on public and nonprofit sector accountability, contains many insights that
will be useful to managers, policymakers, and scholars. While the examples are
Canadian, the problems and dilemmas are universal.The book begins with a chapter-length discussion of accountability. The chapter is particularly strong in explicating the various conceptions of accountability
and how they will have an impact on policy and program. This is followed by a
treatment of the role of information in accountability and the relationship to evaluation. The ideal is contrasted with the realities of evaluation practice. These are
illustrated in the third chapter with some of the research findings from Cutt and
Murrays study. Most evaluators will find this section particularly interesting and
informative. The next section is an especially illuminating discussion of the organizational and institutional issues in evaluation and accountability. The authors
carefully dissect resistance to evaluation. Chapter Six is a useful discussion of
the major strategies and systems for accountability in the nonprofit sector. The
next chapter addresses the often ignored topic of financial accountability. Two
case studies follow the fiscal accountability chapter. The final chapters deal with
three significant developments, the Canadian CAAF/FCVI approach, the balance
scorecard, and the value sieve. These are approaches that seem to offer much to the
future of accountability in the nonprofit sector. The first is an attempt to develop a300 Book Reviewscomprehensive system to assess nonprofits in Canada. The balanced scorecard is
a popular technique in the commercial sector that is beginning to find favor with
the third sector. The value sieve is a resource allocation system that deals with
multiple types of data.The book is a fascinating journey through one of the major problems facing
the third sector today. While it is not particularly easy reading, it is well-organized
and clear. Many charts and diagrams provide helpful clarification. (I had read part
of this research in earlier journal articles, but the book allows the reader to see the
total picture.) The descriptions are rich, the analysis is crisp and sharp, and the
conclusions are provocative and illuminating. My only major criticism is that
the authors did not go further in the final chapter to call for a theory on nonprofit
evaluation.This is the kind of book that nonprofit accountability studies have needed for
a long time. It will most likely become a standard work in this area. Everyone
concerned with nonprofit accountability should read this book.John G. McNutt
Graduate School of Social Work
Boston CollegeJulie Fisher, Non GovernmentsNGOs and the Political Development of the ThirdWorld, Kumarian Press, Hartford, Connecticut, 1998.This book is outstanding. It is essential reading for scholars and practitioners
interested in international development and/or social organization. It would be a
worthwhile acquisition for all librariesessential for larger ones, and ones with
strength in comparative politics and social organization.Julie Fisher is a Program Officer with the Kettering Foundation. She was
previously a Scholar-in-Residence at Yale Universitys Program on NonProfit Organizations. She served as a consultant to organizations including Technoserve,
Save the Children, and Lutheran World Relief, and she taught Political Science
at Connecticut College. The book benefits from this background, and is practical
without being unacademic, and academic without being impractical.Fishers use of terms allows her to discuss her subject without degenerating
into definitionalism. A glossary is useful, and contains many specific illustrations. Fishers concern is grassroots organizations (GROs)membership organizations that work to improve their own communities; grassroots support organizations (GRSOs)nationally or regionally based development assistance
organizations; and GRO and GRSO networksproviding horizontal linkages.Book Reviews 301(Some are for-profit, but Fisher justifies their inclusion as important development
actors.) With other actors, including subnational governments, these organizations
produce a changed civil society. Fisher does not attempt to deal, other than indirectly, with organizations that are simply charitable: her concern is with powerful
development agents. She is perceptive in noting similarities of, and differences
between, different countries and continents.Readers will identify their own favorite part. Mine is the typology of decentralization alternatives distinguishing centralization, decentralization, devolution,
and democratization (based on where governmental decision-makers are located,
and where they are held accountable). Fisher makes the point that although GROs
may be the passive recipients of government decentralization policies, this is not
always the case. As elsewhere in the book, when concepts are introduced they are
accompanied by abundant specifics.Fisher has written a book that is readable and therefore a good choice as a
required text for teachers of a wide range of courses. She acknowledges, though,
that her concerns have been underemphasized in academia. One reason is that
nongovernmental activities tend to fall between the cracks of established subdisciplines. They are relevant to comparative politics, but some institutions cling
to comparative government as a focus. They are relevant to political organization and development, but many institutions emphasize the top down approaches
reflected in international law and world order courses, rather than the bottom
up approaches that Fisher demonstrates are overlooked.Recent works have noted the importance of nongovernmental groups working internationally. Two of particular note are Beyond the Magic Bullet, edited by
Michael Edwards and David Hulme, and Terje Tvedts Angels of Mercy or Development Diplomats? But even with these books the emphasis is more on the Northern
nongovernmental conduits of assistance than the Southern recipients. Fisher points
out that organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are worthy of attention in
their own rightnot just as aid recipients. This fortunately takes us away from the
traditional emphasis on governments, with nongovernmental groups only studied
to the degree that they influence governments. Fisher points out that governments
may be the source of inputs for nongovernmental decision-making rather than the
other way around. A strong point of her book is that she backs her argument with
specifics. She does not rush to conclusions or engage in wishful thinking.As with any excellent book, some readers will wish for additional attention
to certain topics. Fishers identification of population, poverty, and environmental
decay as the three horsemen of the apocalypse raises the question about other
culprits such as social injustice. Fortunately she does discuss the role of nongovernments in fighting repression.Arthur W. BlaserChapman University302 Book ReviewsWilliam F. May and A. Lewis Soens Jr. (eds.), The Ethics of Giving and Receiving:Am I My Foolish Brothers Keeper? Southern Methodist University Press,
Dallas, 2000.Is it always good to help ones neighbor? The growing number of people and
countries eager to promote more philanthropy and volunteering seem to believe
that. But this provocative collection of essays from the Cary M. Maguire Center
for Ethics and Public Responsibility at Southern Methodist University raises some
fundamental questions about the wisdomand virtueof doing so.Chief among the skeptics is University of Chicago professor, Leon Kass,
whose contribution gives the volume its subtitle. Kass argues that compassion
aloneby which he means sympathy for the suffering of a person who is like
oneselfis morally insufficient as a guide for philanthropic activity (and even
worse when used to animate government action). It must be balanced, he contends,
with a sense of justice, a willingness to help those who deserve to be helped, such
as, for example, alcoholics who are seeking to give up drinking. Otherwise, with the
best of intentions, philanthropists may wind up nurturing continued dependency
and treating their neighbors as less than responsible people.Other contributors make similar points about the moral challenges of giving
and receiving. Indiana Universitys David Smith urges trustees of philanthropic
organizations to do a better job of reconciling their desire to give help with the
need to respect those they are trying to help, not least of all by paying closer
attention to the recipients values. Using historical examples, Steven C. Wheatley,
vice president of the American Council of Learned Societies, demonstrates the
difficulties foundation managers have had balancing their ideas about the public
good with the views emerging from the political process.Acknowledging that it never quite overcame its paternalism, historian SusanM. Yohn nonetheless concludes that the early twentieth century work of Protestant
womens missions in rural Texas and New Mexico actually managed to foster a
good deal of social mobility (as well as lay the groundwork for public policy reforms). Indeed, because of their experiences in these rural communities, she claims
these women may have learned more about the poor than did later generations who
got their information from the mass media.From a psychiatrists viewpoint, Roy W. Menninger notes, a mixture of motives usually influences givers, not all of which deserve to be called altruistic.
Nor, for any number of reasons, are seekers of assistance always unconflicted
about doing so. The key to good philanthropy, Menninger writes, is to develop a
healthy relationship between both parties in which hidden issues are recognized
and discussed.This is, of course, easier said than done, as too are the steps other contributors
call for in their chapters. Some would question how the authors have portrayedBook Reviews 303philanthropys ethical dilemmas. Kass, in particular, comes under heavy fire in the
book from commentators who believe he slights the value of simply redistributing
wealth from the haves to the have-nots in his prescription for good philanthropy
(though he responds effectively).Because the essays were drawn from presentations at two different conferences, there is little effort to reach any overarching conclusions (beside how morally
complex giving and receiving are). Nor does the volume include any insights from
the history and thought of other countries or cultures on these matters.Even so, at a time when many scholars and practitioners measure the health
of philanthropy and volunteering by asking how much? or how many? the essays in this volume make a good case that the question for whose good? should
become a more important one.Leslie Lenkowsky
Center on Philanthropy
Indiana UniversityS. Wojciech Sokolowski, Civil Society and the Professions in Eastern Europe:
Social Change and Organizational Innovation in Poland, Kluwer Academic/
Plenum Publishers, New York, 2001.This is the book of a sociologist who feels that Western social science rarely
looked objectively at life under communist-ruled Poland from World War II to
1989. As Sokolowski sets forth his organizational uses and gratifications model,
explaining much of the growth in human service organizations that took place in
post-1989 Poland on the basis of its pre-1989 experience, it is clear he is also asking
for a more open-minded attitude toward what he calls the central planning period.He contrasts his model to a political control model, associated with Robert
Putnam and Francis Fukuyama. (Specific works of theirs are cited, but never specific pages or passages.) The political control model holds that social organizations
in communist Eastern Europe existed only to accomplish the policy objectives of
those in power or to stymie the development of independent civic initiatives.By contrast, the organizational uses and gratifications model posits that, whatever the formal functions of a social organization, its activities under any political
system must reflect in some degree the interests of its members. Therefore, whether
under Gomulka, Gierek, or Jaruzelski, such organizations as the Association of
Polish Lawyers had some social authenticity and independence.If his model is correct, Sokolowski theorizes, then Polish regions that showed
relatively high levels of social organization membership pre-1989, should have304 Book Reviewsexperienced even higher levels of organizational activity post-1989, as citizens already having positive experiences with social organizations now found themselves
free to engage in virtually unlimited associational activities. (This argument, in fact,
seems to echo rather than oppose Putnams in Making Democracy Work.)By contrast, if the political control model were true, once Poland became
democratic in 1989, the artificial social organizations created by the authorities to
channel social activism should have died childless, so to speakall their members
having quit the charade in order to pursue private interests.Using a database of several thousand independent social organizations developed inPoland in the earlynineties, Sokolowki regressed the number of independent
social service organizations existing in Polands 49 prefectures in 1993 against the
number existing before 1989. He found that the the size of the pre-1989 organizational population is a significant predictor of the number of entities created after
1989. In other words, pre-1989 social organizations did have a social life on
their own that was not limited to their official function. They reflected the citizen
initiative and sustained it, until it could develop more freely after the 1989 reform.This sounds like parti pris mixed with dispassionate interpretation of a limited
quantitative analysisthe only alternative independent variable Sokolowski used
was population density or urbanizationbut it concludes this part of the book.
The second part explores various theoretical issues related to social proximity
organizationsSokolowskis termon the basis of in-depth interviews with 14
of them in the healthcare and social service fields. These include problems of organizational innovation, information asymmetry between professionals and their
clients, status recognition, and protection against competitionwhether from legitimate sources or real quacks.All the material in the case studies lends weight to Sokolowskis organizational uses and gratifications theory and expands the meaning of social proximity
organizations. But it also all comes from the post-1989 period. Having made such
a point of the positive legacy of pre-1989 organizational experience in Poland, it is
curious that Civil Society and the Professions in Eastern Europe scarcely explores
that legacy in the case studies.A final point: One wishes that a book into which the author put so much effort
had received comparable attention from the publishers copy editors.M. Holt Ruffin
Civil Society International
Seattle, Washington
International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2001