Book excerpt: Understanding Nonprofit Organizations examines the most important issues that face today's leaders and managers of nonprofit organizations through the writing of scholars, consultants, and practicing executives. It focuses on governing, leading, and managing nonprofit organizations and how such organizations differ from both the public and private sectors. Each part opens with a framing essay that identifies the central themes and issues and summarizes the significance of the contribution that each piece makes to the development of knowledge in the field. Completely revised and updated, the third edition includes new articles on legal frameworks, philanthropy, managing volunteers and accountability, as well as an original essay on capacity building by Michele Cole. In addition, the third edition now features brand-new case studies adapted by C. Kenneth Meyer specifically for Understanding Nonprofit Organizations—making it an even more student-friendly text for graduate and upper-division undergraduate nonprofit organizations and management survey courses.