ABSTRACT
In many international jurisdictions, sport is typically delivered through volunteer-managed nonprofit (NFP) organisations (albeit often in cooperation with paid staff) that can vary quite markedly in size, scope and complexity. Nonprofit sport delivery systems have long histories and generally have satisfactorily served their immediate constituents, as well as a broader array of stakeholders, in terms of both community level and elite sport outcomes. But the NFP operating environment has become much more complex in recent decades and the overall NFP sector (of which sport is a component) has come under the influence of a range of emerging external and internal pressures. Among the most important are: the increasing frequency of government interventions related to rising expectations of positive benefits accruing to communities from the provision of programmes by nonprofit and voluntary organisations; heavier compliance burdens related to accountability of the organisations delivering such programmes; and the movement towards professionalisation and financial independence. As well as these more direct influences, the NFP sector is also facing a raft of broader societal shifts such as those related to perceptions of time pressures and work–life balance that seem to be impacting on the availability and willingness of people to volunteer.
