Signal freakin' boost

[breathedout]

Please read this post by copracat and absorb it into your brain machine:

What non-profit means is that a non-profit organisation must put any surplus (profit) back into itself. It doesn't get divvied up and handed round to rich people like the surplus of Apple does.

A non-profit can and should aim for a budget surplus because budget surplus is a cushion against the unknown.

As much as I know the recent kerfuffle over the OTW fundraising drive was largely spearheaded by antis disingenuously stirring up shit, it ALSO made clear a shocking lack of understanding over, among other things, the basic meaning of "nonprofit organization": a lack of understanding about which I, a former—if nonconsensual—finance director of a $3 million/year nonprofit org, am still having nightmares.

Anyway that's the story of how I considered learning embroidery solely for the purpose of making a sampler that says "Nonprofits should aim for healthy reserves."

Comments

[prettyarbitrary]

Yet again I find myself wishing I could like Dreamwidth posts.

[sarahthecoat]

I think you just did! And I do too!

[glorious_spoon]

That is a Good Take, thanks for the link!

(on the one hand I kinda want to know how someone becomes a nonconsensual finance director, but having spent eight months as a library director somewhat against my will, I probably don't need to ask)

[clarasteam]

GAH.

♥

[chestnut_pod]

*vehement hands of agreement*

Not having surplus means so much less capacity even on a day-to-day basis, as your staff are all taken up with grant-writing, fundraising, shoe-stringing… Surplus isn't just necessary for a rainy day, it allows you to use what resources you do have actually doing what you mean to be doing.

[violsva]

Anyway that's the story of how I considered learning embroidery solely for the purpose of making a sampler that says "Nonprofits should aim for healthy reserves."

Surely this can be done in fair isle!

[breathedout]

... this is such a valid point, which had not occurred to me!

[pennypaperbrain]

Ponder is constantly trying to explain this to the church of which he is about to be treasurer! The deaconate thinks God will provide or something, while Ponder thinks God will not clean up the mess if deaconate insist on making one.

[sarahthecoat]

I'm reminded of the story I saw again recently about the drowning man who thought "god will save me" and refused help from two or three boats that went by and offered to fish him out of the water. When he drowned (duh), god chastised him for refusing to be saved.

[magnetic_pole]

OMG so true. I haven't seen the recent kerfuffle, but past posts on Tumblr clearly demonstrate that a significant number of people don't know how non-profits work. Which surprised me, because fandom always seems to be full of non-profit types.

The thought of you as a nonconsensual finance director made me laugh. Hope the story was #hea. M.

[breathedout]

LOL well the story was at least the sort of descent-into-the-bowels-of-hell narrative where the protagonist is allowed to re-ascend at the end, battered and bloody but also having gained wisdom beyond her years (mostly that she definitely, definitely never wanted to be a nonprofit finance director).

[beehammer]

Non-profits that have cut-to-the-bone overhead also tend to be their own sorts of hellscapes, with underpaid, overworked staff, high turnover, burnout rates to rival the most cut-throat capitalist hellholes, etc. Like, do you want to give your money to a non-profit that's reproducing the same problems hamstringing activism elsewhere, or do you want to be the change you want to see in the world?

[breathedout]

FUCKING EXACTLY!!

(Not that this was exactly the situation in my case or anything)

[fennishjournal]

It explodes my brain that people don't get that. I worked for a tiny, democratically run non-profit and we were all so fabric because we weren't able to accumulate enough of a cushion the last two years.

I wonder if this is really lack of understanding of rather the same mentality that sneerd at poor people owning cell phones?