The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 8, Issue 2, November 2005

This issue of The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law features a special section on Public Benefit Commissions, which decide whether a particular NGO is entitled to tax relief or other benefits. We open with an overview by David Moore, followed by studies of the varying commission structures and experiences in England and Wales, by Richard Fries; Moldova, by Ilya Trombitsky; and Armenia, by Tatshat Stepanyan.

Leading off our other articles, Susan Rose-Ackerman examines Poland and Hungary’s nascent civil society organizations and the obstacles they face, particularly in seeking to influence public policy. Next, J. Peter Pham assesses civil society’s role in bringing order to long-troubled Liberia, which recently inaugurated the first woman elected to head an African nation. Alfitri explains zakat, the Muslim obligation to contribute particular amounts to particular beneficiaries, and Indonesia’s 1999 law regulating its collection by private parties. James McGann and Mary Johnstone argue that NGOs now confront a worldwide credibility crisis, but not an irremediable one. Using data from an informal survey, Charles B. Maclean and Jim Moore show how natural disasters diverted major resources from smaller American nonprofits in 2005, and propose five steps to reduce the impact of future disasters. In Understanding Organizational Sustainability Through African Proverbs, finally, reviewer Emeka Iheme finds a good deal of wise counsel, but also the blind reverence for ancient teachings that too often impedes African progress.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Brown Journal of World Affairs, HTML masters Kareem Elbayar and Erin Means, IJNL volunteer Asad Kudiya, and, especially, our deeply knowledgeable and generous authors.

Stephen Bates
Editor
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
sbates@icnl.org