Why Are People Still Creating Nonprofits?

Описание: Why are so many people still starting nonprofits?

There are over 1.8 million nonprofits in this country.

And yes, there’s an abundance of them that aren’t operating well and probably shouldn’t have been created in the first place.

That’s not this conversation.

Let’s establish the baseline:

Some nonprofits are created simply out of ego, and founders want their name attached to something. They believe they were destined to start a nonprofit, even though they didn’t understand what a nonprofit actually is. It’s self-serving. And we have to be honest about that.

But for many people, nonprofits are created for relevant reasons.

For some, it’s personal - you’ve lived through something, and know firsthand what’s missing.

For others, you see a solution that needs to exist, and want to be a contributor to substantial change.

And then there are those watching more established organizations skip right over the communities that need support the most. Maybe it’s a bandwidth issue. Perhaps those organizations don’t even understand the need. Either way, you step up because you care and want to see real change.

Here’s the shift that needs to happen:

Let’s stop telling people to stop creating nonprofits.

Let’s start teaching people what responsible nonprofit creation actually looks like by asking:

Do you need to create this, or is there an opportunity to support an existing organization?

Have you assessed what’s already there?

Do you understand the gap you are trying to fill?

Do you understand the regulatory requirements and the compliance needs?

And are you prepared to build something sustainable?

The sector needs people committed to advancing missions, not those who want to rest on saying, “I have a nonprofit.”

We don’t have room for that in this sector.