Nature and goals

Nonprofit organizations often are charities or service organizations; they may be organized as a not-for-profit corporation or as a trust, a cooperative, or they may be purely informal.

Sometimes they are also called foundations, or endowments that have large stock funds. A very similar organization called the supporting organization operates like a foundation, but: they are more complicated to administer, they are more tax favored, and the public charities that receive grants from them must have a specially determined relationship.

Most foundations give out grants to other nonprofit organizations, or fellowships and direct grants to participants. However, the name foundations may be used by any not-for-profit corporation -- even volunteer organizations or grass roots groups.

In many countries applying Germanic or Nordic law (e.g. Germany, Sweden, Finland), nonprofit organizations typically are voluntary associations, although some have a corporate structure (e.g. housing cooperatives). A voluntary association usually is founded upon a principle of one person–-one vote.