Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews as well as the results of an original survey completed by 909 nonprofit arts executive directors across 50 states, this study explores factors associated with 501c3 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations that are actively engaged in civil society functions. This study first shows that nonprofit arts organizations are predominantly involved in their market-oriented roles rather than acting as mechanisms to promote a strong civil society. The analytical results of this study show that nonprofit arts organizations are more concerned about their civic roles when they are part of larger and wide range of networks and perceive their peer organizations emphasizing civic affairs. The impacts of these factors, however, vary across 10 different types of arts and cultural organizations. The findings have implications for other nonprofit subsectors and contribute to a better understanding of how nonprofits balance civic and market roles.