Abstract:
Many nonprofits have come to embrace the idea of participating in the market through
business venturing to maximise their revenue. Yet debates continue about its place in
nonprofit management. After an examination of the taxation status of charities' business
activities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States the paper examines its
treatment by scholars, nonprofit practitioners, and the business community. To gain
some understanding of public opinion the paper then examines the treatment of
nonprofit business venturing by the media in these countries. An analysis of this
coverage reveals that much of the criticism appears in business media, which airs claims
that tax exempt nonprofits are a source of "unfair" competition. It is important for
nonprofits to understand the meanings and contestation surrounding their ventures into
business generally, but to be particularly aware of how for-profit competitors may
generate, exaggerate or manipulate concerns regarding business venturing to hinder
nonprofits commercial operations such as influencing governments to change current
tax exemption arrangements. One strategy is for nonprofits to promote the findings of a
significant body of research that has found that nonprofit owned businesses are price
takers not price makers.
