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A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes. more...

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NPOs are active in a wide range of areas, including the environment, humanitarian aid, animal protection, education, the arts, social issues, charities, early childhood education, health care, politics, religion, research, sports or other endeavors.

For-profit distinction

Most experts consider the legal and ethical restrictions on the distribution of profits to owners or shareholders as what fundamentally distinguishes NPOs from commercial enterprises. The use of the term "not-for-profit" rather than "non-profit" has been debated within the field. While there are definitive preferences for one term or the other, there is no broad consensus.

NPOs generally do not operate to generate profit, a characteristic widely considered to be defining of such organizations. However, an NPO may accept, hold and disburse money and other things of value. It may also legally and ethically trade at a profit. The extent to which it can generate income may be constrained, or the use of those profits may be restricted. NPOs therefore are typically funded by donations from the private or public sector, and often have tax exempt status. Donations may sometimes be tax deductible.

'Non-profits' are operated by either volunteers or paid positions. Recently some paid positions have come under question as the salaries of top level executives were in the millions of dollars per year. Additionally, an NPO may have members or participants or beneficiaries or students etc. as opposed to customers in a for-profit organization. One should not generalize about the comparative cost of a 'non-profit' versus 'for profit' organization; there may be a lot of internalized profit in a non-profit organization.

Nature and goals

NPOs often are charities or service organizations; they may be organized as a not-for-profit corporation or as a trust, a cooperative, or they may be purely informal.

Sometimes they are also called foundations, or endowments that have large stock funds. A very similar organization called the supporting organization operates like a foundation, but: they are more complicated to administer, they are more tax favored, and the public charities that receive grants from them must have a specially determined relationship.

Most foundations give out grants to other NPOs, or fellowships and direct grants to participants. However, the name foundations may be used by any not-for-profit corporation -- even volunteer organizations or grass roots groups.

Read more at Wikipedia.org