OCR Text |
Show Lcn-Frof it sector is loflsfl Social Force Americans are fully aware of two sectors of American society-government and business-but barely recognize the third, the non-profit sector, sec-tor, as an important social force. So writes John D. Rockefeller 3rd, chairman emeritus of the Rockefeller Foundation, in the April Reader's Digest. THIS sector, he feels, includes "thousands of institutions insti-tutions indispensable to community com-munity life" and acts as the "seedbed for organized efforts ef-forts to deal with social problems." But, while government is supported by taxes and business by profits, the third sector is dependent upon voluntary giving of time and money to keep it alive and growing. But funds are drying dry-ing up, and the threat that voluntary projects could cease to exist or be taken over by the government is very real. "A healthy third sector keeps government honest, provides alternative ways to solve problems, helps maintain main-tain institutions that should not be taken over by government, govern-ment, and provides opportunities oppor-tunities for the initiative and sense of caring that are the indispensable bedrock of a thriving democracy," Rockefeller writes. But individual giving is running at an annual rate of some 8 billion less in real terms than it was in 1960. The results are immediately visible: visi-ble: starvation budgets, curtailed cur-tailed services, stunted projects. ROCKEFELLER believes that individual donors fail to realize just how important their contributions are. He calls for leadership in all three sectors to make the problem clear to the public. "I have increasingly wondered won-dered what would happen if our leadership in Washington understood fully and believed deeply in the importance of the third sector," he writes. 'This would be manifested in specific measures, such as tax policies to encourage voluntary giving; it would ...encourage all government agencies to facilitate the involvement in-volvement of citizens in meeting their own needs and problems." Similarly, business could increase its corporate contribution toward the level allowed by law and be more sensitive to the corporation's cor-poration's role in the community. com-munity. "WITH such a change of attitudes, we would become a giving society again," he concludes. "We would surprise ourselves and the world, because American democracy. ..would come alive with unimagined creativity crea-tivity and energy." |