Where the Money Goes; The $1.6 trillion nonprofit sector behaves (and misbehaves) more and more like big business.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 31-OCT-05

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Byline: Rana Foroohar

If it weren't for the raffia coasters and folk art in her office, it would be tough to tell Barbara Stocking from a big-time CEO. The director of Oxfam's British operation has the power manner, and calendar: one summer week took her to a meeting with EU Trade Minister Peter Mandelson, a fund-raiser with European business leaders and the G8 summit in Scotland. Minions shuffle in and out, briefing her on tsunami relief, Ethiopian elections, a Chilean earthquake. "Right, is that all the disasters?" she asks briskly.

Stocking says it's her mission to "save the world." But she's doing it in a suit rather than sandals--and so are many others. Spurred by a growing number of global conflicts, increased outsourcing of aid work by Western governments and the boom in private philanthropy, nongovernmental organizations like Oxfam have become big businesses. The Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project at Johns Hopkins University recently studied...

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