US Nonprofit Sector, Tax Benefits, WANGO Survey
"There is scarcely an undertaking so small that Americans do not unite for it… As soon as several of the inhabitants of the United States have conceived a sentiment or an idea that they want to produce in the world, they seek each other out; and when they have found each other, they unite. . . Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small. . . Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States." Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1831
In the 19th Century, French visitor and scholar Alexis de Tocqueville found a distinctive feature of American life, different from Europe at that time: citizens coming together in associations to address needs that were not being met by government and business. Tocqueville noted associations to form schools, distribute books, create prisons, and build hospitals. And this was not a new development in American life, but dated back to the colonial period. Some of these civic initiatives, such as schools, were deemed so essential that they subsequently were taken up and expanded by government to provide even wider benefit to citizens.
Non-governmental associations remain an enduring and integral condition of American life today. Currently, there are approximately 1.3 million known nonprofit charities, foundations and religious congregations in the United States. Many more associations have not been formally incorporated and recognized by the government.
