Lester Salamon

Lester M. Salamon (11 January 1943 – 20 August 2021) was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He was also the director of the Center for Civil Society Studies at The Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy Studies. Salamon has written or edited over 20 books in addition to hundreds of articles, monographs and chapters that have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Voluntas, and numerous other publications. He was a pioneer in the empirical study of the nonprofit sector in the United States, and is considered by many experts in his field to have been a leading specialist on alternative tools of government action and on the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and around the world.

Education Salamon speaking at a conference at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City. Salamon graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Policy Studies from Princeton University in 1964 and earned a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University in 1971.

Recent Publications Books

Explaining Civil Society Development: A Social Origins Approach (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017)

Rethinking Corporate Social Engagement: Lessons from Latin America (Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press, 2010).

Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector (with S. Wojciech Sokolowski and Associates), Volume II, (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2004). - (Chinese edition published by Peking University Press, 2007)

Global Civil Society: An Overview (with S. Wojciech Sokolowski & Regina List), (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 2003). Hungarian edition published as: A Civil Társadalom: Világnézetben (with S. Wojciech Sokolowski & Regina List), (Budapest, Hungary: Civitalis Egyesület, 2003).

The Resilient Sector: The State of Nonprofit America. (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2003).

The State of Nonprofit America, (ed.) (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2002).

The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector [Inaugural Edition] (with Helmut K. Anheier, Regina List, et al.) (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 1999). (Winner of the Virginia Hodgkinson Prize, Independent Sector, 2001) Spanish edition published as: Sociedad Civil Global: Dimensiones del Sector sin Fines de Lucro, With Helmut K. Anheier, Regina List, Stefan Toepler, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and Associates (Madrid: Fundación BBVA, 2001). Chinese edition issued 2002

Recent Monographs and Articles: a Selection:

'Monographs

Impact of the 2007-09 Economic Recession on Nonprofit Organizations with Stephanie Geller. Listening Post Project Communiqué #14: Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 29 June 2009.

Report on the Nonprofit Advocacy Roundtable, with Stephanie Geller. Listening Post Project Communiqué #13. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 22 April 2009.

"Shovel-Ready" but Stalled: Nonprofit Infrastructure Projects Ready for Economic Recovery Support with Stephanie Geller. Listening Post Project Communiqué # 12. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 17 February 2009.

Nonprofit Policy Priorities for the New Administration with Stephanie Geller. Listening Post Project Communiqué #11: Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 22 October 2008.

Articles

“Survival Mode” by Greg Hanscom, Johns Hopkins Magazine, pp. 36–39, Fall 2009.

“Volunteers and the Economic Downturn, Volunteering in America, August 2009.

"How to Rally an Army of Nonprofit Volunteers," Chronicle of Philanthropy, 15 January 2009.

"How to Finance Obama's Social-Innovation Fund," Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2 July 2009.

“Third-Party Government: The New Normal in Government and Nonprofit Operations”, with Helmut Anheier and Stefan Toepler, Encyclopedia of Civil Society, February 2009.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy Nonprofits to the Rescue, February 2009