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One of the great things about the United States is that a group can create an organization to do anything that serves the public good. The nonprofit sector is the essence of democracy -- citizens committing time and resources ("voting") for causes they believe are important.
But the countries North American settlers came from undertook cultural and social service endeavors in a very different way -- through religious organizations, monarchies, and the nobility and extended families caring for each other.
In the US, the nonprofit sector grew out of pioneers settling North America. Folks founded settlements -- and building an elementary school, for example, came from the volunteer efforts of a few parents.
The privilege of volunteering did not come as easily as you may think. Thomas Jefferson, for one, felt the government should control nonprofits. But many others felt the right to create a nonprofit was the same as the right to assemble, believing that nonprofit boards would protect individual rights, and that they should not be preyed on by state legislators. The Supreme Court helped settle the argument.
Today there are more than 1.3 million nonprofit organizations in the United States, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics. These nonprofits serve an incredible range of cultural and social service activities.
So the nonprofit phenomenon is unique and empowering. By the way, governments all over the world are still fighting against nonprofits. Over the last 30 years, foundations and governmental agencies in developed nations have funded nonprofits in developing countries to help feed the poor, advocate for human rights and restore cultural sites, to name a few of their endeavors. That irritates many foreign governments who would prefer all this money go to them -- to spend as they wish.