[DDN] I make no profit, therefore I suck

[Joe Beckmann]

The problem should become obsolete, not its solution, and the solution ought
to be substantial enough to affect other problems. So, polio can generate a
lasting infrastructure of health advocacy; religion can generate different
strategies for physical as well as moral health; etc. Whether profit or
non-profit, organizations do not exist to make themselves obsolete, but,
rather, to address needs that are concrete in the opinion of the founder(s)
and the marketplace. As needs change - are either fulfilled or become
obsolete themselves - the organizations (whether profit or no) also change.

It's very painful and uncomfortable when we confuse the problem with the
solution and organizations that do that almost inevitably fail, whether
profit-based or not. It is very easy to see that failure in the profit
sector, and dismiss the evaporation of DEC or DataGeneral with the emergence
of microcomputers, for one example. But it's a lot more painful to see
similar failures in the non for profit sector, and see how American public
education is failing American children, for a more global alternative. This
emotional baggage, which the nfp sector celebrates, actually obscures it's
own goals and measures of impact. And in that there are lots of
controversial worms wriggling around.

J

On 7/14/07, Frederick Noronha [फ़रेदरिक नोरोनया] <fred at bytesforall.org>
wrote:
>
> > tom abeles wrote:
> > > hi taran
> > > 1) i agree that nfp's should try to make themselves obsolete but I
> > > don't know of one that does that intentionally. Even organizations
> > > that work for the elimination of a medical problem, such as polio, in
> > > the US, reinvent themselves
>
> To my mind, the not-for-profits are not problematic in themselves.
> What *is* problematic though is when they turn into a huge
> self-serving bureaucracy, and more energies go into keeping themselves
> running rather than solving the problem which they were set up to
> tackle in the first place.
>
> So, rather than working to make themselves obselete, they should work
> to make themselve self-sustainable, not funding-driven, focussed on
> their mission, and not bureaucratic or self-serving. We needn't throw
> away the baby with the bath-water.
>
> For example, the way in which the not-for-profit Free Software
> movement (less so the Open Source network, which has grown with
> corporate support and in the media spotlight) has grown is a pointer
> to what is possible.
>
> Looking forward to hearing what the others feel. FN
> --
> FN: Frederick Noronha
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-- 
Joe Beckmann
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