Bringing Business Experience to the Nonprofit Sector: What Works and What Doesn’t

Five distinguishing characteristics of non profit organizations are identified and explored. They are: a different and more complex environment, more altruistic purposes with strong traditions, importance of motivating and rewarding volunteers, staff structures that exist in parallel with volunteer structures, and frequent short‐run/annual budget orientations as opposed to effective strategic planning. The authors reject the notion that non profit management should be different from that in the private, for‐profit sector, but emphasize that these five characteristics must be recognized and addressed before attempting to directly apply business experience to nonprofit environments.