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19 - Nonprofits as Distributors of Toll Goods

from Part III - New Directions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

By
Eva Witesman
Edited by
Eva Witesman  and
Curtis Child
Eva Witesman
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Utah
Curtis Child
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University, Utah
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Summary

Witesman provides an institutional theory of the nonprofit. The chapter considers the argument developed by the author in a 2016 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly article. In it, she proposes an institutional theory of the nonprofit that defines its distinction from public and private institutions through (1) the voluntary (rather than coercive) assignment of roles and (2) the use of the good or service by non-payers. The voluntary and redistributive nature of such nonprofit-type institutions makes them primarily compatible with the distribution of goods that are non-subtractable and excludable (toll goods). This view is in contrast to legalistic or sector-based theories of the nonprofit.

Keywords

nonprofit theorynature of goodsinstitutional theorynonprofit organizationtoll goods
Type
Chapter
Information
Reimagining Nonprofits
Sector Theory in the Twenty-First Century
 , pp. 372 - 393
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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