Abstract
Research in the United States on the distribution of power among elites at the national level has been primarily concerned with the role of business despite evidence from surveys of elite individuals themselves that points to a central core of powerful individuals inclusive of elites from the nonprofit sector. The literature all but ignores public charities in spite of the fact that charities often work with and for groups that seek to expand democratic participation and economic equality. The silence of elite research is particularly troubling given the dramatic growth of the public charity sector in terms of its size, diversity, and amount of resources. Despite this growth, however, some argue that public charities are relatively powerless because they are beholden to a corporate-financed network. Yet, I argue that public charities are potentially autonomous, and the empirical question becomes whether they have the capacity to promote their interests to other elites. The research that follows is part of a larger project that examines the interlocking directorates among the largest organizations in business and the nonprofit sector and looks at whether elite interaction networks are dominated by business—as usual.