INTERNALIZED POVERTY

This internalized poverty mentality is pervasive in non-profit, purpose-driven space.

The wages are way too low compared with other industries.

There's no mentorship and workforce development within this sector.

No investment in anything long-term. 

They are proud of Zero budgeting. 

A zero-sum competition exists between non-profits in smaller cities especially for funding.

The skeletal staff is doing 2-3 jobs for a salary of one.

The Board is always a hands-on board, sometimes meddling too much on implementation.

Volunteers are used as second-level staffers.

Funders do not trust them to develop their organizations, only to deliver the programs.

I got almost into a debate after I spoke about the fallacy of 10% administration budget that funders would only fund.

I reasoned that 10% is too miniscule to account for what non-profit needs to scale, grow, and build stronger and robust systems for the community good that they do.

A woman retorted, " so Executive Directors get to pad their pockets with lots of money?"

Is this really what we think about this issue?

What a narrow, escapist notion that people will pad their incomes when given more money for administration. 

It's like saying that we should not build bridges and roads because the contractors get the best of taxpayers monies or that politicians get a kickback somehow.

There's no future in this poverty mentality than more poverty, scarcity leading to bad, low quality, one-size-fits-all services that serve no one. 

This is the loop that should be condemned by everyone.

The non-profit is in a crisis and it has been like that for a long time.

If these structural issues continue, no amount of billion dollar funding can make it better, it could trigger a more dog-eat-dog scenario.

Let's stop kidding ourselves that it will change when a new government comes, or when the funders will get an epiphany, or maybe, if we can just demand for reforms.

No! this is a case for societal response to a major overhaul.

And I don't think we are near fed-up which is what I hope so.