The third edition of The Politics of Adoption , like its predecessors, owes a great deal to Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes 1 and to my other colleagues at the Australian Centre of Philanthropy and Nonprofi t Studies. For their support and companionship I remain extremely grateful. The many academics, senior managers and others, whose contribution to the fi rst and second editions did much to ensure the appearance of the third, have previously been acknowledged but the debt of gratitude for their efforts continues. 2 This edition has similarly benefi ted from the kindness of those who took the time and trouble to read chapters and offer comments. The geographic and cultural spread of their contributions bears testimony to the international nature of this exercise. The sense of a shared collegiate endeavour, of time and effort selfl essly invested by busy people to help me get this right, was very encouraging. While not suggesting that they have in any way ‘signed off’ these chapters, I do acknowledge that their contributions were enormously helpful. Although it is not possible to render a full account of the debt owed to so many it would be quite wrong not to acknowledge the particular contribution of a few.