Like the arteries of a living organism, nonprofit organizations carry a life force that has long been a centrepiece of American culture - a faith in the capacity of individual action to improve the quality of human life. They embody two seemingly contradictory impulses at the heart of American character: a deep-seated commitment to freedom and individual initiative and an equally fundamental realization that people live in communities and consequently have responsibilities that extend beyond themselves. Uniquely among American institutions, those in the nonprofit sector blend these competing impulses, creating a special class of entities that Alexis de Tocqueville recognized to be more deserving of our attention than any other part of the American experiment.