I recently read an incredible post written by pilates instructor and wellness industry critic Helen Phelan. In it, she argues that wellness consumers are so easily distracted by extraneous products and trends that they’re losing sight of the fundamentals of well being: food, water, movement, and mindfulness.
As a wellness consumer myself who recently debated buying a $300 sleep tracker ring, I completely understand how easy it is to fall prey to shiny new products and feel-good marketing campaigns.
But the point that Helen is trying to make, and the takeaway that I think nonprofits can benefit from, is that our industry doesn’t need to be that complicated.
Philanthropy at its core is simple. Or at least, it should be. When I think about the basic structure of nonprofit work, I’m reminded of the 2005 comedy classic Robots.
See a need, fill a need, remember?
It doesn’t make any sense to me why we try and run nonprofits like a business, especially considering that the nonprofit sector was created to fill the gaps left by failing government infrastructures in the first place.
Why on Earth would we model ourselves after the same institutions that solicit the very existence of our work??
Quite frankly, it’s madness y’all. We’ve created a Frankenstein industry, a pseudo-corporate empire built under the guise of kindness. We’ve made a business out of helping people. It’s ass backwards, at best.
Mind you, I’m not a nonprofit hater. I went to grad school for arts administration and have worked at several nonprofits in my day. I just think we need to quiet the noise and get back to the core principals of our work: helping those in need and dismantling systems that cause suffering in the first place.
We’re losing sight of what matters most. And I’m gonna say it: we’re getting a little too precious about our work.
We should be actively seeking to sunset our organizations, not grow them to scale. We should be focused on putting money and resources into hands that need them, not developing “thumb-stopping” brand campaigns and carefully-tiered member benefits and hemming and hawing over tablecloths for our annual Give-A-Palooza.
Now, please note when I’m saying all this that I work full-time at a marketing agency for nonprofits. 🙃 *Pause for eye rolling.*
Sooo, I’m not so much calling anyone out as I am collectively calling us in. I’m very much complicit in this system too, and I understand that many of us have built our entire careers around the nonprofit industrial complex, making it really hard to divest from the current climate of philanthropy.
So, what’s to be done?
In my dreamy dream world, the nonprofit sector would move away from adopting capitalist business strategies and towards what I’m calling intuitive philanthropy. I like using “intuitive” because it connotes basic common sense and gut instincts/feelings vs. carefully-crafted systems and strategy.
This is my starting framework for what I think intuitive philanthropy could look like in practice.**
**I want to clarify that this isn’t meant to be a solution for homelessness or global warming, nor is it an entirely new notion. I’m deeply inspired by movements like Community-Centric Fundraising, which argues the need for radical change in our funding practices. “Intuitive philanthropy” is simply my way of wrapping my head around these ideas and trying to put them into practice.
Self-care alongside community care
There’s an underlying expectation that as nonprofit workers, we’re supposed to be overworked, underpaid, and willing to do anything for “the cause.” However, I firmly believe that you cannot physically and emotionally show up for others if you aren’t first grounded and cared-for yourself.
It’s cliché, but you really can’t fill from an empty cup. Standing up for ourselves as workers and human beings allows us to more actively advocate for others in need.
People over prestige
Nonprofits, donors, and community activists should operate with anti-capitalist intentions, putting community needs before profit, prestige, and public appearance.
We need to end the Nonprofit Hunger Games and stop trying to reach a Platinum rating on GuideStar. We must recognize that we don’t need 20 different organizations with nearly identical mission statements trying and failing to solve the same exact problem.
Maybe it’s okay if we’re not the ones who get credit for doing good, so long as the deeds get done.
What would happen if we divested from a mindset of competition and scarcity and embraced shared abundance? It’s time to shed our organizational allegiance and egos and start pooling time and resources toward a common set of goals.
Abundance for all
Nonprofit organizations have a duty to actively support social justice movements. We can’t be afraid to “get too political” in our work and must aggressively advocate for the equal rights of all human beings.
The perspectives of marginalized and intersectional populations must be at the center of all nonprofit work if we are ever to move beyond the exploitative nature of the nonprofit industrial complex towards true equity and prosperity for all.
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Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that philanthropy doesn’t need to be that complicated. There is a better path forward for our sector, but some fundamental shifts need to happen in order to make these dreams a reality.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, I’ll leave you with this rallying cry:
This is very helpful. Too many times in the nonprofit world, we try to make this work way more difficult and way more challenging that it has to be. When we add more complexity, we add more opportunity for confusion. There are plenty of opportunities to serve those that come to us each day and if we work with others, we quickly realize that there are plenty of resources to those that we are called to help. Committing ourselves to care for our neighbors is more admirable than creating complex systems.