6 Reasons to Use the Term Community Benefit
Organization by Hildy Gottlieb
Copyright ReSolve, Inc.2009 ©
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Lately we hear a louder and louder
drumbeat to stop using what my friend
Mark Riffey calls
the other N word. Nonprofit.
This post will not be about
that.
After all, if were mounting
a campaign to move to more positive language, its pretty self-defeating
to have that campaign itself be negative! The command to STOP using
negative language is about as self-contradictory an oxymoron as one could
find!
So herewith, 6 reasons to move
TOWARDS a positive name for the work we all do - Community Benefit work.
1) Community
Benefit Says What Our Organizations Are and Why They Exist
Imagine youre going on a blind date. You ask, What is Joe
like? And you are told, Well hes not very tall or thin. He
doesnt like Italian food. Oh - and he doesnt have a dog.
There is more going on in this
description than merely failing to provide pertinent information. The real
result of this description is to focus you on particular aspects about Joe.
Further, you will notice that none of those aspects is important to who Joe
really is.
Is Joe an opera singer? A gourmet
chef? A rocket scientist? Is he the most attractive and phenomenal lover the
world has ever known? You dont know, not only because I have failed to
tell you, but because the facts I HAVE chosen to share are irrelevant to being
an opera singer or an amazing lover.
Calling your
organization a Nonprofit focuses the worlds attention on a particular
inconsequential aspect of your being - the financial means that allow your work
to be accomplished.
Calling your
organization a Community Benefit Organization declares to the world your
primary purpose - to provide benefit to the community.
2) The Meaning of
Community Benefit Organization is Straightforward and
Clear Misperceptions often arise from the emphasis the
nonprofit label places on money. And while those of us who live and
breathe Community Benefit work cannot fathom how confusing the term can be to
people who are not similarly immersed, here are just two examples from my own
experience.
True Story #1:
I was on a plane next to a young man who had just finished his
second tour of duty overseas in the military. He asked about the work I do, at
which point he asked a question that had been nagging at him for years.
How do they get anything done? If theyre nonprofit, doesnt
that mean they cant use money? How do they pay for things?
True Story #2:
At the end of their fiscal year, a small arts group was showing
a profit. The board believed that was not permissible, because they were a
nonprofit. They voted to donate every penny of those funds to
another charitable organization.
I am not alone in these
observations. Ellis Carter, an attorney to Community Benefit Organizations,
shares similar stories. "This seems so obvious, but I get
at least one call a year to settle an argument about whether all the
organization's money has to be spent by the end of the year."
Calling your
organization a Nonprofit leads people to make all sorts of assumptions about
the financial means by which an organization is permitted to do its work.
Because those assumptions are overwhelmingly incorrect, they can actually cause
harm.
However, if
(for example) the arts group thought of itself as a tax exempt Community
Benefit Organization - and the word nonprofit had never been
uttered - it likely never would have occurred to them to give away their
profits.
3) The Term
Community Benefit Organization Creates a Strong, Powerful
Self-Image The term Nonprofit feeds our insecurities. It
isnt often you hear the term used as an excited exclamation: We are
a Nonprofit! Instead, the term is used (for example) when asking for a
discount. We cant afford much - were a nonprofit. No
surprise there - the name almost screams, We have no money!
The term also puts organizations
on the defensive, as the name itself is a comparison to something positive,
stating unequivocally, "That thing you think of as positive - profit - we are
NOT that."
As a result, in addition to the
run like a business mantra, we are now seeing entire promotional
campaigns that declare Nonprofits Are Businesses Too! This attempt
at self-justification saddens me every time I see it.
Positive words, on the other hand,
make us feel - well - positive!
In keynote speeches, when I
suggest to the audience that they are NOT nonprofits - they are
Community Benefit Organizations - audience members sit up straighter in their
seats. They gasp. They applaud and cheer.
Whether I am providing a 20 minute
luncheon keynote or a full-day workshop, the thing that sticks in their minds
as they fill in their evaluations is not the main subject matter, but an almost
unanimous reflection: I love the term Community Benefit
Organization!
Referring to
your organization as a Nonprofit makes board and staff feel defensive and weak.
A sense of weakness is almost guaranteed to lead to fear-based, short-sighted
decisions and plans.
Referring to
your organization as a Community Benefit Organization generates an almost
palpable sense of strength and power. That sense of strength then pervades
every decision that is made, and every action that is taken.
4) The Term
Community Benefit Organization is Inclusive Creating
visionary change in our communities will take more than just one or two
organizations. It will take linking arms between community organizations,
government departments, elected officials, social entrepreneurs, and businesses
large and small.
Because the term Community Benefit
Organization focuses on a groups intent in the world, the inclusiveness
of the name allows for its use by all those entities - not just traditional
"nonprofits."
A business, for example, might
rightfully feel uncomfortable telling its stockholders, We have a
nonprofit component to our work. However, that same project might be
received quite differently if instead they said, We have a Community
Benefit component to our work, because strong communities are a critical
component to our long term success.
By using the
term Nonprofit, we are suggesting that only tax-exempt
organizations do good for the world. That divisiveness precludes our working
together to build strong, resilient, vibrant communities.
By using the
term Community Benefit Organization, we encourage anyone and
everyone to join in the effort to build strong communities.
5) The Term
Community Benefit Organization Provides Direct Marching Orders to
the Board: Focus on Providing Benefit! When a board believes it is a
Community Benefit Board, the name proclaims the boards
marching orders - to provide the most benefit possible.
Conversations at the board table
will focus primary accountability on the benefit you have promised to provide
to the community.
Similarly, the goals of your
organizations annual plans will aim at the benefit you have promised to
provide.
And that brings me to #6.
6) Community
Benefit is a Promise The brilliant
Zach Braiker of the
international business strategy firm Refine & Focus states, Your
name is your promise. What outcome is the highest priority for you? That should
be your name.
So what is the highest priority
outcome of this work we are all doing to make our communities amazing places to
live? Is it to vow never to make a profit? Or are we promising to provide
benefit to our communities, now and into the future? Are we promising to build
strong, healthy, resilient, vibrant places to live?
In the end, if that community
benefit is what we are promising to provide, then that is the promise we should
proudly proclaim in our name.
We are Community Benefit
Organizations!
Watch the Video and get Community Benefit mugs for your
board! |