SHIFTING THE BURDEN - HOW MUCH CAN GOVERNMENT DOWNLOAD TO THE NONPROFIT SECTOR

As part of the process of financial retrenchment, governments have beg un to look to the non-profit sector to fill the breach left by their w ithdrawal from social programs and to provide a mechanism by which soc ial services can be delivered less expensively. However, much of what is known about the non-profit sector suggests that it is not well able to act as a substitute for government in social-service delivery. The sector is extremely diverse and operates with values, procedures and geographic variation that differ from those of government agencies. Th e non-profit sector also has a number of inherent limitations: an inab ility to generate resources consistently or on a sufficient scale; a t endency to focus on particular groups of the population, leading to ga ps in coverage and duplication of services; the vesting of influence w ith those in society having command of the greatest resources; and a h istorical association with non-professionalized approaches in coping w ith human social-welfare problems. The results of attempts to download government programs to the nonprofit sector will vary according to th e way in which such downloading is effected. Nevertheless, it is evide nt that the potential for downloading of the delivery of government so cial programs to the non-profit sector is limited and unlikely on any significant scale.