Only the social sector can create what we now need, communities for citizens.
Civilizing the city will increasingly become top priority in all countries—and particularly in the developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. However, neither government nor business can provide the new communities that every major city in the world needs. That is the task of the nongovernmental, nonbusiness, nonprofit organizations. Only the social sector can create what we now need, communities for citizens—and especially for the highly educated knowledge workers who increasingly dominate developed societies. One reason for this is that only nonprofit organizations can provide the enormous diversity of communities we need—for churches to professional associations, form organizations taking care of the homeless to health clubs…
The nonprofit organizations are also the only ones that can satisfy the second need for effective community, the need for effective citizenship. The twentieth century saw an explosive growth of both government and business—especially in the developed countries. What the twenty-first century needs above all is equally explosive growth of the nonprofit social sector in building communities in the newly dominant social environment, the city.
ACTION POINT: Reflect on how your favorite nonprofits can help create new communities in cities.
Managing in the Next Society
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker