This interdisciplinary collection is the first book to address the organizational aspects of religion. Topics include the historical sources and patterns of US religious institutions, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, and the interface between religious and secular institutions.

Policymakers, civic leaders, and scholars have increasingly focused their attention over the last decade-and-a-half on the importance of voluntary participation in civil society. From George H. W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps to George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives, it is undeniable that communities are looking to increase their levels of charity and voluntarism in the provision of public goods and services. What mobilizes giving and volunteering? What are the characteristics of communities that are engaged, and those that are not? What can policymakers and nonprofit managers do to change the current landscape in places with low levels of participation? These are the questions this edited collection addresses. It is the first book specifically dedicated to community giving and volunteering efforts with a best practices element. Published in cooperation with the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University.

Philanthropy and voluntarism are among the most familiar and least understood of American institutions. The oldest American nonprofit corporation--Harvard College--dates from 1636, but most of the million or so nonprofits currently in existence were established after 1960. In ""Inventing the Nonprofit Sector" and Other Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations" cultural historian Peter Dobkin Hall describes and analyzes the development of America's fastest growing institutional sector.