My values, attitudes, and behaviors, like those of most Americans, have
been profoundly influenced by not-for-profit enterprises. My parents
were students in one when they met. I was born in one. I learned about
God in one, my ABCs in another, how to make a fire and tie knots in
another, how to play ball and be part of a team in another, and I met my
first girlfriend in another. I prepared for my career at a
not-for-profit university, met my wife at a not-for-profit church, went
on to several not-for-profit graduate schools, joined numerous
not-for-profit profes- sional and special interest groups, brought two
newly born sons horne from not-for-profit hospitals. I read magazines
published by several of them, sail Cj. nd hunt with their members, and
when I vote I consider a variety of their admonitions. Voluntary
not-for-profit enterprises have been molding and shaping me as long as I
have been alive, and they will even be represented at my funeral.
Therefore, it seems only fair that I should help to shape some of them.
I have been at that task for some time now-Ieading seminars, consulting,
writing, and serving on boards and committees. This book is an outgrowth
of what I have learned through formal study, observation and analysis,
and personal experience in more than half the states of the union and
many foreign nations.