Nonprofit organizations: social responsability based on values, 1820-1910

Abstract

Nonprofit or third sector organizations have not received the deserved attention from researchers. However, especially in the second half of the 1800s, they have considerable relevance, as industrialization becomes intensified and due to its effects on the  most disadvantaged. With the migration of the labor to the urban or more industrialized centers, the number of people in need  grew. So, the associative movement – mutual organizations, cooperatives, class associations, and unions – contributed in a notorious  way to support jointly and mutually the neediest. These were the roots of the movement that have gained strength in the  last decades and which under several names perform a function like that of the 1800s associations, with the necessary adaptations  to the actual context.