Membership Information

Nonprofit organizations and voluntary action are critical to the development and strengthening of democracy and civil society throughout the world. Universities are central institutions for understanding and promoting the structures essential for democratic life. University-based programs that perform research, teaching and public service to strengthen nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations, philanthropy, and voluntary action are critical to helping universities and their communities meet this need.

The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) was founded in 1991 by leaders of university-based nonprofit academic programs who wanted to share information and ideas to strengthen their programs and advance the field of philanthropic and nonprofit sector education within their institutions and beyond. Central to building the field is recognition and support by institutions of higher education that philanthropic and nonprofit sector studies are a vital component of the education, research and community engagement that they undertake. NACC member centers are committed to the advancement of nonprofit and philanthropic studies programs that are recognized by their host institutions as a focal point of nonprofit sector activity.

The mission of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council is to support academic centers devoted to the study of the nonprofit/nongovernmental sector, philanthropy and voluntary action to advance education, research and practice that increases the nonprofit sector's ability to enhance civic engagement, democracy and human welfare.