Government Non-profit Partnerships in the Netherlands

This article describes the development of government non-profit collaboration in The Netherlands. First, it gives an overview of scope and structure of the non-profit sector and voluntary work and then explains the crucial steps in the evolution of partnership arrangement between the public sector and non-profit institutions. The article describes the past significance of so-called pillarization on the development of the non-profit sector and its collaboration with the state. In accommodating a broad diversity of non-profit organizations with different religious and societal background, The Netherlands created an elaborate mechanism for government-non-profit collaboration in which non-profit organizations fulfil functions in service delivery and policy formation. However, the sector is now fundamentally fragmented and now has little shared identity left. Paradoxically, its past success also makes it less likely that the Dutch non-profit sector will be regarded as a solution to current social problems.