Week 3: What does the sector do?
Sep 9 (Wed only; Mon Sep 7 is Labor Day) · M1. Roles, anatomy, and reading sector statistics responsibly.
This week’s big question
What jobs does civil society do, and how big is it? We name the sector’s roles (service, advocacy, expression, community-building) and learn to read sector statistics without being fooled by averages. Module 1 · builds LO5 (read claims responsibly), LO3 (three sectors) · thread: data/evidence.
Heads-up: Monday Sep 7 is Labor Day. NO CLASS. This is a Wednesday-only week. Do the reading below before Wednesday.
Readings
| Reading | Focus & purpose |
|---|---|
| Core · Patricia Bromley, “The Organizational Transformation of Civil Society”, ch. 4 of The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (3rd ed., Stanford, 2020). Read pp. 123–137. 15 pp. | How nonprofits worldwide became formal, professional organizations that increasingly resemble firms, and what gets counted as a result. The closing section, “Counting and Accounting,” is the one to read hardest, since it is the argument behind Wednesday’s fact-check. |
| Current · National Council of Nonprofits, “About America’s Nonprofits”. | The headline numbers as the sector’s own trade body states them. |
| Tool · Urban Institute / NCCS, Nonprofit Sector in Brief dashboard. | Live IRS data, not a static fact sheet. We use it in class; come having clicked around it once. |
| Optional · BLS Monthly Labor Review, “Nonprofits: A Look at National Trends in Establishment Size and Employment” (2024) · archived copy. | The “don’t be fooled by averages” case in full. |
Mon Sep 7, no class (Labor Day).
Session · Wed Sep 9: Roles & anatomy of the sector
Our first AI-fact-check, a miniature of the 990 Lab method both rails put points on in October: you get a real local org, have AI write a 3-sentence summary, then verify every claim against the website and the 990 and circle what AI got wrong (a made-up founding year, a wrong budget, an invented program). We close by tagging each verified org with the role(s) it plays.
What’s due / prep
- If you haven’t yet, lock in your site-visit org, the visit window opens next week. See Site Visit & Analysis.
- From this week on, the last ~3 minutes of Wednesday is a progress check-in (site-visit + plan-plank status + blockers). It isn’t graded; it’s the early-warning system, and it’s where to say a visit has fallen through.
Looking ahead
- The site-visit window opens next week (Sep 14 – Oct 2). Proof-of-contact is required, and visits take time to arrange; confirm your org now.