The rise of the NGO

In the book Microtrends by Mark Penn, one of the identified micro trends is that more and more people in the USA are employed in in the non-profit sector. Although the average salary in the non-profit sector still lags behind both government and profit sector, the share of population that is employed by these NGOs is growing every years. First of all, this is because of a growing number and amount of donations. But another argument is that both government and profit sector have a low credibility and are therefore less and less able to attract new (talented) people.
Together with this new development is the growing role for non-profit organisations to contribute to solve societal problems, which before was considered to be the domain of the government using innovation and dedication that before belonged to the private sector. Furthermore, the trend (also recognised in the book) is that all three sectors government, private and non-private increasingly collaborate together and therefore contribute to the breaking down of the strong barriers that defined and separated the three sectors. Non-profit organisation also deal with business plans, innovations and advanced monitoring and evaluative tools. New venture philanthropy has emerged and as non-profit organisations grow they have to focus more and more on traditional business topics as human resource, organisation structure, management etc. This means for innovation that the traditional focus on business or on 'tripple helix' has to be rethought and has to include non-profit organisations as well. In the far future the whole distinction between profit and non-profit might as well disappear, with successful leaders and organisation being able to address societal issues in ways that also generate profit.