ABSTRACT
In an old story, asked to describe an elephant, one person compares it to the trunk of a tree, another to a snake. No doubt a third might have described its ivory tusks. The point of the story is that the same thing looks very different according to where you come at it. That certainly applies to the voluntary sector. Some describe it in terms of large household-name charities; others refer to the countless small community and self-help groups, run purely on voluntary effort. Still others see it mainly as campaigning organisations. Each would have very different expectations of what it could do and where it fits in society.
