Civil society/Catalogs/Organization Types

This page contains an alphabetical catalog listing of a variety of terms for civil society organizations.

Association

1) A group of three or more persons organized for the achievement of some purpose.

2) Also, a shorter term for voluntary association (see below)

Civil society organization

An increasingly used term used outside the U.S. for any organization operating outside the economic market, political state and the intimate sphere of the household.

Club

Usually a small association with a narrow or clearly defined purpose and limited formal organization. (E.g., card club, model club, chess club). The term can also be applied to larger membership associations (e.g. 4H Clubs).

Commons

A group of independent individuals voluntarily sharing a common purpose (e.g. raising crops, grazing sheep, operating a public charity, creating and maintaining open source software, etc.), and pooled resources (land, grass, money, programming skills).

Company

Cooperative

Corporation

One of three principal forms of organization of business. (The other two are sole proprietorships and group ownership). In American legal doctrine, a corporation is technically an individual, not an organization. At minimum, the organization of a corporation is its board, but paid employees or "agents" may also be organized into a company (in the archaic sense or an organized group). The organization of business corporations also includes another category of owners or stock- or shareholders who receive portions of the profits of the corporation.

Family
Family Foundation
Firm
Foundation
Group

Household

The organization of persons living together in a residence. A single family household includes only related family members of one family and any resident household employees and retainers, like live-in cooks, housekeepers, au pairs, etc. The U.S. census also tabulates households of unrelated individuals (often termed "roommates").

Interest group

Krewe

'Membership association'

Nonprofit corporation

Nonprofit organization

Not-for-profit organization

Political association

Political party

Professional association

Social movement

Tong

A Chinese-American association. Originally primarily mutual aid associations, tongs in some cities evolved into secret societies or criminal organizations.

Voluntary association

Waqf

A Turkish foundation.