Home > Non-profit organization
A non-profit organization (often called "non-profit org" or simply "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") may be a formal incorporated not-for-profit corporation that does not have shareholders, though it may have members and issue membership certificate s or require member loans. It may also be a trust or association of members. The organization may be controlled by its members who elect the
Board of Directors or Board of Trustees. Not-for-profit organizations may have a delegate structure to allow for the representation of groups or corporations as members. It may be a non-membership organization and the board of directors may elect its own successors. It may have a tax exempt status or it may be a de-facto group of individuals operating for a common purpose. For example, it may comprise a voluntary group of individuals who are dedicated to developing an open content online encyclopedia, that allows any member of the public who has access to an internet connection and a world wide web browser to make a contribution of knowledge, information, editing, formatting, or programming skills.
Such "organizations" are often charities or service organizations; they may be organized as a not-for-profit corporation or as a trust, a cooperative or they may be purely informal. Sometimes they are also called foundations, or endowments that have large equity funds . Most foundations give out grants to other not-for-profit organizations, or fellowships to individuals. However, the name foundation may be used by any not-for-profit corporation -- even volunteer organizations or grass roots groups. A non-profit organization may be a very loosely organized group such as a block association , or a trade union, or it may be a complex structure such as a university, hospital, documentaryA documentary is a work in a visual or auditory medium presenting political, scientific, social, or historical subjects in a factual and informative manner. Among the most popular forms of documentary are: Documentary film Radio documentary Documentaries. film productionFilm production stages include (very broadly) Development: script development, or purchase of a screenplay rewriting the screenplay (repeat) see development hell financing Pre-production: budgeting scheduling casting rehearsals set construction Production company or educational book publisherA publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. Major publishing companies include AOL Time Warner, including subsidiaries Warner Books and Little, Brown ASCII Baen Books Farrar, Straus and Giroux Hachette Filipacchi Media Harleq.
Most jurisdictions have laws governing the setting up, running, and reporting requirements of these organizations. In many aspects they are similar to business entities though there are often significant differences. Both non-profit and for-profit entities must have board members, steering committee members, or trustees who owe the organization a fiduciary dutyFiduciary duty' is one of the duties that corporate directors and officers have towards a corporation. Broadly speaking, fiduciary duties can be grouped into three categories: Duty of Loyalty. A director must act in accordance with the interests of the co of loyalty and trust.
The largest non-profit organization is the Bill and Melinda Gates FoundationThe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the world's largest charitable foundation. Endowed by Bill and Melinda Gates, it was created in January 2000 through the merger of the Gates Learning Foundation and the William H. Gates Foundation. The foundation i, which has an endowment of approximately $27 billion. The second-largest is the Howard Hughes Medical InstituteThe Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is a United States non-profit medical research institute based in Chevy Chase, Maryland and originally founded by the aviator and engineer Howard Hughes in 1953. As of 2003 it is one of the largest private fundin, which has an endowment of approximately $11 billion.
