The United States has locked most of our most caring people into the least effective and stupidest organizations possible: Non-profit social service agencies. These agencies seem good, since they do good things like deliver hot meals, pass out bags of surplus food and pat themselves on the back all the time. But the reality is that most non-profits aren’t good, they’re just “not bad.”
Non-profits are primarily patronage and public relations programs. They are also a kind of outsourcing initiative, with non-profits saving money by doing work that should be done by higher paid and better benefited government employees. As patronage and public relations programs, non-profits are very effective. A big part of what they do is link politicians to people who care about issues, by inviting the pols to thank you galas, ribbon cuttings and other p.r. events. Non-profits spend a great deal of their time and resources gathering money – which positions them as key nodes in the fund raising networks that politicians depend on.
Cross posted: Political Porn
Some non-profits are more bad than good, such as food banks and homeless shelters. Nations without poverty don’t keep people out of poverty by passing out corporate waste products (surpluses) as charity, and don’t house the poor in temporary and dangerous shelters. But these are two of the most popular kinds of charities for those who really care about the poor. It’s ironic that those who are most concerned about poverty end up contributing the most to the systems that feed off of it. We’d be better off without food banks and shelters, as this would end the dangerous myth that these kinds of systems work.
But enough of what sucks. Today I start “The Good Guys,” a weekly blog series, highlighting people and organizations that go beyond the typical suckyness of most non-profits. The criteria for what makes a Good Guy (and Gal) is simple:
- Speak up to power, even if it means less funding and more trouble with power brokers
- Build organizations from the bottom up, even it this is harder and takes more time
- Focus on political solutions, not feel-good band aid solutions
- Don’t waste time of stupid non-profit and lefty ideologies, and are instead focused effective ways of getting their values realized
I will feature the first organization next Friday.
Cross posted: Political Porn