Civil society/Catalogs/Organization Types

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This page contains an alphabetical listing of a variety of terms for civil society organizations. (Many of these types are also covered more extensively in separate linked pages.)

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).

Community Foundation

A type of foundation first created in the 1920s in Cleveland and consisting of individual funds dedicated to specific purposes (like supporting nonprofit organizations, community resources, scholarships, etc.) and general funds available for distribution by the foundation's governing board.

Company Foundation

A foundation created by a business corporation out of company earnings or profits. (Tax law often allows corporations to donate a limited amount for such purposes). Distinct from a family foundation created by members of a family-owned business out of their own personal wealth.

Cooperative

A cooperative (or co-operative or co-op) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise[1].

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

An intergenerational group of biologically related persons. The Hegelian conception of civil society includes families of related individuals and others living in the same household, including employees, servants, and pets.

Family Foundation

A foundation created and controlled by members of a family, and often named for the family. (E.g., the Ford Foundation; the Mandel Foundation, etc.)

Firm

An economic organization devoted to the production of goods and services for the maximization of profit.

Foundation

Defined by one authority as "a large pool of money completely surrounded by people who want some."

Group

Group is a very general term that can return to just about any batch, cluster, classification or category of things. In the context of civil society, it is most often used to refer to three or more persons in spatial proximity to one another and interaction with one another.

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

Term used by Alexis De Tocqueville in Democracy in America to differentiate political from other civil organizations.

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.

References

1. http://www.ica.coop/coop/principles.html