Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

Hopes for an advance of voluntarism and philanthropy in Ronald Reagan's administration were dashed by its failure to build on the tradition of using private resources, both human and financial, to resolve public problems. Reagan's legacy may well be to strengthen the hand of those who see the voluntary tradition as elitist and reactionary.

In the turbulent and competitive environment of contemporary social service, government may seek to transfer important program func tions to nonprofit organizations. Subjected to management control mechanisms, such as caps, and expectations of self-sufficiency, nonprofits often seek to establish an institutional entitlement for continuing support. Aspects of the complex relationship between government and nonprofits are explored in a case study of New York state's Neighborhood Preservation Program.

This paper examines the regional implications of decentralizing sup port for social services and income transfers from the federal govern ment to charitable organizations and state and local government. The evidence suggests that profound place-to-place disparities persist in support of programs that aid the poor even after allowance is made for local differences in affluence, distress, political ideology, and the crowd-out effects of federal assistance. The findings indicate that local generosity in the social and welfare realms remains unre lated to the locus of need.

This study was based on 140 interviews with wealthy philanthropic Americans. Evidence indicates that most of the giving of these multi millionaires goes to institutions and programs that serve the interests of the upper class, not the needy. Private nonprofit universities, prep schools, and arts and cultural groups receive more support from elite philanthropists than social service or health causes. These findings are of concern due to the extreme concentration of private wealth in the United States and Reagan administration policies emphasizing private over government provision of basic human services.

Over the past thirty years, government and voluntary-sector initia tives have stimulated both expansion of the number of volunteers and greater participation by young people, the elderly, and non- whites. Despite the high priority given to volunteering by the Reagan administration, federally sponsored programs did not expand, the proportion of Americans engaged in volunteering declined, and more volunteers shifted into organizations affected by reductions in human services. The idea that reducing services would motivate people to volunteer was based on invalid assumptions about the ideology of volunteers and the factors that motivate people to work for free. A synergistic rather than a competitive relationship might exist between the public and the voluntary sectors.

A survey of volunteer firefighters in five states shows that volunteer firefighters, while predominantly white males, come from a wide variety of occupational backgrounds. Most say that this is their major volunteer role and that they are firmly committed to it. The author relates characteristics of fire departments to volunteers and draws implications for the further elaboration of this voluntary role.