The oldest American non-profit corporation - Harvard College - dates from 1636, but most of the million or so non-profits currently in existence were established after 1960. The author describes and analyzes the development of America's fastest growing institutional sector.

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.