Grassroots Associations Versus Larger Nonprofits: New Evidence from a Community Case Study in Arts and Culture

Abstract

Very small nonprofit organizations are typically omitted from sector accounts, because neither the IRS nor the Bureau of Census collect data on these groups. Arguably, this may not pose a major problem. Prevailing economic theories in the nonprofit field direct attention to larger and more formal service-providing organizations. From an economic point of view, very small and informal organizations are of lesser importance. However, social capital and civil society arguments have focused renewed attention on informal, voluntaristic groups, many of which are likely small in scale and thus being missed in existing data sources. This article presents data from a community study of cultural organizations, comparing small-scale groups to larger organizations to contribute to our understanding of the economic dimensions of the nonprofit sector's grassroots base.