I Encuentro de la Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe de la Sociedad Internacional de Investigación del Tercer Sector, Río de Janeiro, 1998.

This paper explores the reasons for the lack of identity, in Brazil, between organizations which, in the United States, are considered to part of a sector. Whether the components of the “sector” are drifting apart or being brought together, is an issue of interest for scholar in the consolidating the field of nonprofit studies as well as practitioners in advocacy and service providing organizations, government officials and society at large.