The Nonprofit Band-Aid Syndrome
What do you do when you see a problem in your neighborhood, whether it’s a stray cat, an individual experiencing homelessness, or a school library without books?
If your answer is “start a nonprofit!” you might want to pause and think again. Starting a nonprofit isn’t always the best way to have an impact on your community — and it might even make the problem worse.
Peruse any nonprofit internet forum and you’ll see the same question asked daily. How do I start (and fun!) a nonprofit? This question is posed by a passionate civic leader who sees a problem and wants to fix it, but the question also points to an often overlooked and uncomfortable problem in the nonprofit sector. Instead of asking “how do I start a nonprofit?” we should be asking “do I really need to start a nonprofit?” But that seems to be the one question we can’t bear to face.
Nonprofits are a critical part of our current global society, and obviously I’m passionate about the sector. Nonprofit organizations enrich our lives with art, bring aid to our neighbors, and support the health of our families and communities. But there’s no way to avoid that many nonprofits that were founded to address specific, niche needs end up serving as bandaids and address problems only at the most superficial, small-scale level.
Each of these nonprofits has a positive impact, no doubt. But, the end result of so many nonprofits is that the sector is overloaded with organizations that offer only nebulous solutions to the problem they see in our society. These organizations spend more time clamoring for cash and volunteers than they do achieving their missions.
The Band-Aid Nonprofit
If you do a quick search in Guidestar, my 50,000 person city of Pflugerville, Texas has 319 registered 501c3 organizations (with our neighboring Austin boasting more than 8,000 nonprofits). That’s a lot of organizations working to address the problems that Central Texas faces. Some of these organizations are national affiliates of larger NPOs, some are local community organizations like Chambers of Commerce, and some are multi-million dollar major players in the social impact field.
But even more of the many nonprofits in my community are niche organizations focused on animal welfare, education, economic empowerment, food insecurity and more. And no doubt, this is great: I’m truly lucky enough to live in a city (and region) bursting with civic engagement and community involvement.
Dig deeper and you see a problem: the same vague mission statements, the same please for cash, and the same gripes about volunteers, funding, resources — or the lack thereof.
What The Bandaid Nonprofit does
The Band-Aid nonprofit is founded from a place of passion, in response to seeing a pressing societal need. Take homelessness, a persistent and complex problem that highlights the intersection of many intertwined, systems-level challenges (poverty, racism, healthcare and more). A passionate founder may see a pressing need: men and women living unsheltered need might need socks (a real and pressing need for each and every individual living in this precarious situation). And so, a nonprofit might be formed to collect new socks and pass them out on the streets. A donation drive for socks is set up, and the nonprofit gets modest local coverage. Of course, the socks are well received (again, they’re a real need!). But, before they know it, that founder is scrabbling to write grants to philanthropists and foundations that invest in addressing housing insecurity, and more.
Who cares? Why do I hate socks?
The problem isn’t the socks. Individuals living unsheltered —or children in cash-poor communities, or single mothers getting an education, or any of the other societal problems that keep me up at night — deserve dignity. They deserve socks. But, socks aren’t going to solve homelessness. A new nonprofit with a niche mission and lack of collaboration with other nonprofits, civic leaders, and local efforts is simply diluting the efforts that are already happening.
Even though the lives of each person these small nonprofits are touched in a positive way, these ad-hoc efforts to solve societal problems can actually cause harm. Arbitrary attempts do not necessarily change the systems that led to the problem in the first place. But rather than address those hard problems, we put band-aids on them.
What Nonprofit Leaders Can & Should Do
By all means, keep rescuing cats, giving out socks, and caring deeply about our communities. But to rip the band-aid off and treat the (often festering) wound underneath, the nonprofit sector needs to get a lot smarter, and a lot less ego-driven
The best nonprofit organizations operate with a deliberate balance of micro-and macro-level change. They help individuals and communities, but also promote big, systems level change to solve — not just temporarily fix — the reason they started their organization in the first place. The best nonprofits offer our communities a combination of thoughtful program delivery, intentional collaboration, and persistent advocacy.
It can’t be ignored that funders are as complicit in this as nonprofits. But, as our societal challenges persist, our entire sector needs to be focused on both individual impact and large-scale change. When you see a problem and want to solve it, pause and take a look at what’s already happening in your community. Look at local legislation, and get involved. Reach out to organizations already working in the field and ask how you can help. Lend your skills, talent, and ideas to what’s already working, and make it even better. All of this can be done without forming a nonprofit.
Nonprofit Partnerships for Passionate People
Being a volunteer might not have the same pizzazz as starting your own nonprofit. However, since many small nonprofits lack effective collaborators, being a volunteer, a partner, and a collaborator isn’t just a recommendation - it’s a way you can increase the impact that we have as individuals and as a sector. Your opinions and passions matter, so you should put them to use in whatever manner will be most impactful.
So where to start?
Check GuideStar to see what nonprofits operate in your local community, city, and state.
Call your local United Way and ask about what volunteer opportunities they know of, or what local organizations they already partner with.
See if your local Chamber of Commerce has events, opportunities, or information. These are often a highly underrated source of information!
Look at sites like Taproot Foundation to see how you can put your skills to good use.
Become a fiscally sponsored project rather than founding your own organization.
If you have an idea, want to talk through how you can have an impact, or need to pick our brains, you can schedule a quick coaching call and we’ll find time to chat!