From its origins funded on the principles of XVI century's philanthropy and religious charity to the contemporary legal status and management practices oriented towards efficient performance, this article aiming at demonstrating the historical path of the Brazilian third sector, focusing its aspects of management, legislation and sources of resources. From the methodological point of view, the study has a qualitative nature, mainly based on relevant books, papers, documents, laws and research reports that allowed to depict the historical path. In order to visualize the element-focus along the history, diagrams based in the hyperbolic trees were used. Among several raised aspects in its five centuries of history, the third sector has being enlarging its field of action and enhancing the importance attained by the society. However, several institutional changes occurred and the nonprofit organizations, although conserving values as solidarity and altruism, were pressed to work with a more instrumental logics, evaluating their performance and searching for more and more high results. Finally, certain historical elements are questioned, considering that they could have been perceived under hegemonic and ideological perspectives, what generates possibilities for reviews and to the development of new historical studies.
third sector; history; management; legislation; sources of resources
