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Hi everyone, I’m on a plane heading to Tokyo. It’s been several hours and I’m tired and grumpy and hallucinating a little, which might affect the tone of this piece. Last week, I had a speaking engagement in Canada. While I was there, the president of the US abruptly left the G7 summit. Apparently to start World War 3 until his boss, Putin, told him to back off.
Before my speech, I was making conversation with a colleague at my table, who brought up a problem she sees with our sector: The term “nonprofit.” This is a common discussion we have from time to time over the years. Why define our sector by something that it’s “not”? It’s so confusing and leads to people thinking things like nonprofits can’t generate income.
Let’s talk about Turning Point USA, an organization founded by right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk. Its mission is to advance conservative politics across college and university campuses, radicalizing students to be more and more right-wing. It’s been so effective that it’s now also working to brainwash high school students.
I bring this up because I can’t imagine the leaders of Turning Point USA, which is also a nonprofit, giving a rat’s ass what this sector calls itself. TPUSA has been raising money. A lot of money. In 2019, its revenues were $28.9 million, and in 2021 it was $55.8 million.
Nonprofits advancing white nationalism and white supremacy don’t care that they’re called nonprofits; they don’t spend any time debating the name of the sector. Their 501c3 status is just that, a formality, a tool they use to advance their (horrifying) agendas.
This is one of the reasons why conservative movements and organizations have been so successful. They don’t waste time or energy on discussions that don’t ultimately serve their goals. If progressive leaders, organizations, and movements want to be as effective, then we need to stop being distracted by rehashed conversations and arguments and just accept some brutally honest answers and move on. Here are some of them:
1.“How do we improve grant processes?”: Every nonprofit should just have one application package, and every funder should get over themselves and just accept it instead of expecting their own snowflake grant application.
2.“Should nonprofits be more like businesses?” Capitalism causes many, if not all, of the problems we’re trying to address, and most for-profits fail within a few years anyway. So no, let’s stop emulating for-profits.
3.“Maybe more nonprofits should engage in social enterprises or turn into B-Corps?”: Progressive movements and leaders need funding the way Turning Point USA and other conservative nonprofits are funded (with millions of dependable dollars), and it won’t come from forming social enterprises or B-Corps.
4.“Should funders increase payout rates now, or exist in perpetuity in order to address problems in the future?” Increase your payout now. Seriously, we’re on the verge of World War 3, and even if that doesn’t happen, fascism is spreading like wildfire across the world. If you’re even thinking about perpetuity at this moment, you’re in a bubble of privilege-scented delusion.
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Read full article here.
