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Brian O’Connell is especially distinguished in having been Co-Founder and President-CEO for 15 years of Independent Sector, one of the top national coalitions of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the United States and a key infrastructure organization for civil society in that nation. He also led several other major US CSOs, most notably the American Heart Association and also the National Mental Health Association for a dozen years each. Two of his books were widely read (O’Connell 1983, 1999).
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Brian O’Connell was born January 23, 1930, in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, and was thus an American citizen. He received a B.A. degree with a major in English from Tufts College (now University), Medford, Massachusetts, in 1953. For the next year, he did postgraduate work at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Administration, Syracuse University. O’Connell was the Founding President and later President Emeritus of Independent Sector, the...
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References
O’Connell, B. (1983). America’s voluntary spirit. New York: The Foundation Center.
O’Connell, B. (1997). Powered by coalition: The story of Independent Sector. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
O’Connell, B. (1999). Civil society: The underpinnings of American democracy. Hanover: Tufts University/University Press of New England.
O’Connell, B. (2005). Fifty years in public causes: Stories from a road less traveled. Hanover: Tufts University/University Press of New England.
Further Reading
Cornuelle, R. C. (1965). Reclaiming the American dream. New York: Vintage Books, Random House.
Edwards, M. (Ed.). (2011). The Oxford handbook of civil society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Levitt, T. (1973). The third sector: New tactics for a responsive society. New York: AMACOM.
O’Neill, M. (2002). Nonprofit nation: A new look at the third America (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Powell, W. W., & Steinberg, R. (Eds.). (2006). The nonprofit sector: A research handbook (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press.
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Smith, D.H. (2020). O’Connell, Brian. In: List, R., Anheier, H., Toepler, S. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99675-2_661-1
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