Special guest blogger Sylia Obagi, Founder & Chief Strategist for the Generative Group, presents an 8-part series to change the name from non-profit sector to “for-purpose”sector and break the culture of scarcity.
Join us in this dialogue, contribute your ideas!
It’s time to stop defining ourselves negatively – with a label that only says what we aren’t.
It’s time to get rid of the old story of scarcity that says no matter how hard we try we will always lack the resources we need.
It’s time to reclaim our branding back from the Internal Revenue Service, to tell a new story and find a new name for our sector.
Here are eight ideas. I see them as an invitation to dialogue. I don’t have all the answers, but I am confident that we can find them if we work together. Collaboration has always been the strength of our sector and our best strategy for change.
Change the name, change the narrative
Nonprofit describes a tax status, not the public-interest purpose of charitable organizations, nor their intent to improve people’s lives. I suggest scrapping the old nonprofit handle along with its scarcity connotation.
Over the years, board members, donors, and other stakeholders have come to believe that “nonprofits can’t make a profit”. This is erroneous. The reality is that nonprofits not only can make a profit, they should make a profit.
Nonprofits are tax-exempt. That means they are prohibited from distributing profits to any directors, shareholders, or trustees. Instead, these entities must invest their profits back into their organizations, their operations and their ability to serve the public good. So “tax-exempt” is an accurate description of what we do. However, it fails utterly to convey the mission-driven social impact our organizations are expected to deliver.
A number of new names have been suggested. I’ve heard colleagues use “charities”, “social purpose organizations”, or “impact organizations”, or “public benefit organizations”. The positive-connotation possibilities are unlimited.
So let’s start a dialogue (see Step 8 which will come out soon) with the aim of generating naming options and creating a brand that focuses on impact (what we do) while offering adequate latitude to include all 501 (c) 3 organizations.
Our identity doesn’t arise from the lack of a profit motive. Our identity comes from our work – through our efforts to improve the human condition, through our quest for change.
For the remainder of this 8-part series, I will use the term “for purpose” organizations in lieu of “nonprofit”, and offer that as my contribution to the dialogue of adopting a new term to describe tax-exempt charitable organizations.
Look out next week for step 2 – Think Money First!
To see the article in it’s entirety visit The Generative Group.
