News Release

"Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector" is a 511-page volume and the result of years of study by nearly 150 researchers in 22 countries.

"While some of this data has previously been made available through smaller reports, this is the first collected volume of our work," said Lester M. Salamon, a professor and director of the institute's Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. "It provides an analysis of the nonprofit sector around the world using systematic comparative data."

The work describes and quantifies the nonprofit sector in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany as well as in Japan, Israel and Australia. Eastern European nations such as Poland, Hungary and Romania are included, as well as Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

This book demonstrates that the nonprofit sector is a far more significant economic force than commonly understood and that substantial differences exist in both the overall size and composition of this sector in the various countries studied.

In addition, the work shows that the nonprofit sector is growing and that volunteers play an important role, even though private philanthropy has much less of an impact in financing this sector than does government or fees for service.

To arrange an interview with Salamon or a researcher in a particular country, please call Glenn Small in the Office of News and Information at 410-516-6094. To order the book, call 410-516-4617. Further information about the study may be found at: http://www.jhu.edu/~ccss/.