Can Non-Profit Organizations Compete?

I've had some very interesting discussions over the past few weeks about the role—and competitiveness—of non-profit versus for-profit organizations in the health and human service field. On one hand, with tax-exempt status and no shareholders to satisfy, non-profit organizations should be able to compete with no problem. I've had many an executive of a non-profit organization state that they don't see how a for-profit organization could take their place in a particular market.

In fact, the share of the dollars in the market that are either managed by or . . .