Month: May 2016

Why are there no consequences that…

nearly all non-profit organizations eventually adopt corporate missions.

Non-profit organizations, including charities, professional societies, and educational institutions, are usually founded by idealistic people who want to make the world a better place and who truly believe that their organizations can help to achieve that goal. If asked, those founders can probably articulate a clear mission for their organizations and they would probably not identify making an income as the primary focus those missions.

But once an organization begins to hire a permanent paid staff, the original mission inevitably comes under pressure. When push comes to shove, the staff is invariably more concerned about being paid than it is in pursuing the founders’ vision for the organization. Contributions that were initially directly almost entirely to the organization’s original mission are redirected more and more to meeting payroll and the organization’s mission evolves into a corporate mission: maximize income, minimize risk, and build brand. For the paid staff, receiving an income is the mission and the original mission becomes vestigial, a historic artifact that is used to encourage continued donations or to justify the organization’s non-profit status.

While there are a few non-profit organizations that seem to weather this sad consequence of human nature, I have been amazed at the variety of organizations that have succumbed to it. Nearly every organization that contacts me for money or in-kind contribution is doing so to meet payroll first and to pursue its original mission second (or third, or not at all). Its agents employ the mass-marketing tools of modern technology while exploiting the politeness hammered into many of us during an earlier, more personal era (“Hello. How are you doing today? I’m calling on behalf of…”). Calls from paid solicitors are particularly dispiriting because they can’t even pretend to care about the original mission.

Over the ages, wise people have commented on the philosophical value of separating the person who gives charity from the person who receives charity. Charitable organizations, and non-profits in general, were intended to provide that separation. It’s sad that human nature makes it so difficult for these organizations to avoid losing sight of their original purpose.

Lou Bloomfield

Why are there no consequences that…

universities consider time and money spent in the classroom as wasted.

Universities are much more inclined to “invest” in beautiful facilities and grounds, institutes and centers, sports and entertainment, and information technology. That’s probably because every decision at a university is a financial decision and attracting donations is a central mission of every university. Donors want to see tangible results from their donations; they want to buy something lasting. Ultimately, they’re looking for a little immortality, hopefully with their names attached. Since money spent on teaching is gone at the end of each semester, few donors care to support it or even pay much attention to it. And if it doesn’t attract donors, universities aren’t interested in spending their money on it, either.

Students are pragmatic and they recognize that society values a college degree far more than it values a college education. Students therefore pay for a degree, not for an education, so the quality of the education at a university is essentially irrelevant to all the stakeholders. If education happens, everyone eagerly claims credit, but it’s the result of volunteerism and youthful idealism. Universities and their administrators much prefer to spend their precious budgets on activities that promise to reward the universities and their administrators. Education is not such an activity. Faculty similarly have little incentive to spend time on teaching because they are rewarded for research and scholarship. Lastly, many students are happy to obtain a degree without putting in much effort or obtaining much of an education. Strange world.

Lou