ABSTRACT
The United Nations has issued guidelines to national statistical organisations on the preparation of economic statistics relating to not-for-profit enterprises. The findings of the study demonstrate the remarkable scale of not-for-profit activity. The term not-for-profit organisation is clumsy. Paid employees in the not-for-profit sector make up on average 5.2% of the total workforce. In the United States alone there are between a million and a million and a half such not-for-profit organisations, depending on the definition used. Clearly the sources of income of not-for-profits depend very much on the field in which they work. There is thus a wide and varied universe of business models aimed at delivering a social good in exchange for an income from one or other section of society. Businesses sometimes think that, if they work with a non-governmental organization (NGO) the NGO should cease its criticism of business, or at least their particular business.
