Abstract

Organizations are social entities that operate in complex task environments. The importance of environment al effects suggests that organizations operate as systems and understanding the organizational environment is essential to understanding the emergence of nonprofits characteristics their structures. The chapter addresses the economic, social and technological contexts of the nonprofits referring to the institutional, technical and stakeholders’ theories. The chapter introduces the concepts of external and internal environments, public and private stakeholders and variations in influence of these stakeholders on non profit management and decision making.