There was a time when it was easy to look at the formal organisations in a modern society like Australia and identify three clear sectors. Government (public sector) made laws and generally ran things. Business (the private sector) generated wealth by creating goods and services for profit. And a ‘third’ voluntary sector, based in ‘civil society,’ mobilised people in a variety of socially beneficial activities driven not by political or commercial incentives, but by a desire to ‘do some good’ or ‘get involved.’

Today, the third sector has become more ‘businesslike’ and is operating in ways that bring it into direct competition with for-profit organisations. In many cases, it also now operates much more closely in partnership with government, bidding for contracts to carry out tasks that in earlier times the government would have administered itself.

The very term ‘voluntary sector’ has been replaced by the newer terms ‘non-profit sector’ or ‘not-for-profit sector,’ and this reflects the increasingly professionalised and commercialised character of many third sector organisations. Calling them ‘charities’ nowadays seems quaintly anachronistic.

Big-government corporatism is now in danger of smothering the third sector altogether. The temptation for non-profit organisations to go after government contracts is huge, for the financial rewards can be substantial. But when they chase this money, these organisations are supping with the devil. They would be well advised to use a longer spoon, or even better, to turn their attention from getting government cash to compete instead for the willing patronage and growing goodwill of the people and communities they seek to serve.

These essays, from a leading group of practitioners and analysts, confront some uncomfortable insights about the state of the relationship between government and the third sector and offer some practical suggestions.

Contributors: Peter Saunders, Distinguished Fellow, CIS, Mark Lyons, formerly Professor of Social Economy, UTS, James Cox, CEO, Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, Peter Shergold, CEO, Centre for Social Impact, UNSW, Lisa Fowkes, CEO, Job Futures, Rob Simons, Head of Research and Evaluation, The Smith Family, Vern Hughes, Director, Centre for Civil Society, Martin Stewart-Weeks, author Social Capital: The Individual, Civil Society and the State