Jonathan Spack is mad. He's mad about fallacies that he sees the nonprofit sector as having internalized—fallacies that contribute both to poor management and to poor self-esteem. Here is his first person nonprofit rant:
Our sector suffers from a chronic self-esteem deficiency. For most Americans, personal wealth is the primary measure of social status. If you've had financial success it must be because you're smart. This social Darwinism carries over to nonprofit organizations, too, morphing into a kind of sectoral Darwinism. As a result, many people-- both inside and outside the nonprofit world -- see our sector as being of secondary value and importance compared to the (for-profit) business sector.
The pervasiveness of this sectoral inferiority complex leads to some widely-held beliefs and practices that I consider harmful to our work, and self-destructive when they are inwardly focused. Here are a few that really get me going:
1. "It's a lot easier to run a nonprofit than a regular business."
The reality is that nonprofit leaders must articulate the organization's values and advance its charitable purposes while managing its finances prudently. Balancing these obligations in an environment where access to capital is severely limited, revenue models are highly complex and infrastructure supports are sparse makes nonprofit management much more challenging than most on the outside realize.
Furthermore, nonprofits operate in a "muted market" which requires accountability to both those who pay for programs and services and the consumers of those services. In a for-profit business these two groups are the same, but not for us. The often differing and conflicting needs and expectations of funders and constituents add an extra layer of complexity to nonprofit work.
2. "Nonprofits are inefficient and wasteful."
3. "Nonprofits would be more effective if they/we operated more like commercial businesses."
4. "Nonprofits are warm and fuzzy places . . . no one gets fired."
5. "A nonprofit isn't a career; it's a job for housewives and young people."
[Click Here to Read The Full Post Nonprofit Self-Esteem Crisis | Blue Avocado]

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