The Principal Strength of Nonprofits is also their Greatest Weakness

One of the interesting facts we discovered in a human resource survey we did years ago, was how few people in the nonprofit sector are drawn to jobs offering higher salaries in the for-profit sector. For profit employees often take jobs in the nonprofit sector but the transition does not often work in the opposite direction. One can only assume that people choose the nonprofit sector for the “higher purpose nonprofits serve in society” that governments the world over recognize as the reason to award them tax exempt status.

The value-based foundations of this sector are truly inspiring—but nonprofit thinking can also be a manager’s nightmare when otherwise hard-nosed business people leave their brains at the door of nonprofit board or committee planning meetings.

Even if we weren’t living in these economically stressful times, it makes no sense for nonprofit organizations to commit their organizations to markets and projects that have no plan or deadline for ever being economically sustainable. Such actions can and do stress organizations to the breaking point—particularly these days--and in point of fact such “altruistic” acts sometimes disguised or excused as “lost leaders” more often than not achieve only one thing: the destruction of their organization. Those who are the intended beneficiaries of this largess often obligingly take these “gifts” in puzzled amusement at these wealthy people who have nothing better to do with their resources. But don’t expect appreciation—if they truly wanted what you are giving them they would have found the means to pay for it--so nonprofit organizations that are squandering their resources in this way find that they have not only wasted their time and money, but they likely also have alienated the loyal members who are subsidizing these acts.

If there is a quicker or more blatant way for an organization to self destruct we have not seen it. This is one of the major themes of The Association Guide to Going Global. For your organization’s sake, please offer this book as good holiday reading material to your professional and volunteer leaders!

Read more about the subject here, with an article by Plexus Consulting Group's President, Steve Worth.