How can social capital be decreasing when the non-profit sector is booming?
There is simply said no one-to-one relationship between the non-profit sector and social capital. While on the margin, non-profit organizations may be more interested in fostering social capital than for-profit organizations, one can’t conclude that because an organization is non-profit, there is thus a lot of social capital being created. Imagine a non-profit hospital that becomes privatized: it is hard to imagine that suddenly the social capital associated with the organization disappears. Similarly many non-profit membership organizations with regard to social capital among its members are mere check-writing organizations (like the AARP) that are surprisingly devoid of social capital, since its members don’t meet or know each other. Moreover, many forms of social capital (neighborhood block parties, pickup basketball, etc.) don’t rely on non-profit organizations at all. In short, while there are many terrific non-profit organizations that are actively building and strengthening comm
