3 Comments August 29th, 2008

Radio Ga Ga 2: The role of nonprofits in constructing a better world

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I returned to the airwaves this morning with my coworker Jules to talk about nonprofits and society on WUML. My good friend Charlotte, who I know from my Lowell cable access days, hosts Thinking Out Loud every Friday morning. I previously was a guest on her show two years ago plugging my job, the CTC VISTA Project.

This time, Jules and I had a free-ranging discussion on the nonprofit sector and its role in constructing society. As we’re arguing, nonprofits are hamstrung as social innovators because of their structure: barred from advocacy, they concentrate on services which—while individually valuable—provide only symptomatic relief rather than comprehensive reform. We don’t want to discount the valuable and necessary services of nonprofits (not at all!), but believe that a parallel movement of advocacy and reform is key to building a better society. While nonprofits are perhaps a natural place to begin dialogue, vision and action for improving society as a whole, those components must ultimately move beyond the narrow confines of traditional nonprofit organizations in order to be effective.

Listen to the program below

Video thumbnail. Click to play.
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The Road to El Dorado film

Click here to download the mp3.

If you find this type of talk interesting, you would probably enjoy the book The Revolution Will Not be Funded.

Boogeyman on dvd

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3 Responses to “Radio Ga Ga 2: The role of nonprofits in constructing a better world”

revecca on August 30th, 2008

This is a great conversation that challenges the placebo effect of many non-profits. Let me know if I am translating this right (6:38-7:50). You propose that non-profits should be re-engineered to not only offer services but also to include political activism. This would place non-profits as an intermediary between the needs of the community and government programs. Love the book link but maybe you could expound a little bit about how this shift might affect the funding sources for non-profits.
As a “millennial” definitely looking to work for serious social change I wonder what you really mean about “other avenues”?
ps: totally back the necessity of human element

ben on August 30th, 2008

@revecca Thanks for the chance to clarify.

The essence of what we’re saying is that “the nonprofit”, as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, is structurally limited by law and regulation to perform a narrow service-based role. And (most realistically) that will not and cannot change. Unfortunately, especially among my own peer groups (the millenials), the *idea* of the nonprofit has taken on a much grander society-changing role that is, for the most part a frustrating and nonexistent fantasy (perhaps too strong a language for the actuality, but that’s the flavor of it).

In terms of moving forward, Jules and I are saying that we need to (1) more widely recognize the limited scope and role of the nonprofit, (2) make sure that we are meeting day-to-day needs (the services that nonprofits provide), AND (3) look towards the future and reforming society as a whole (through a something else).

I’m not there yet in terms of what that “something else” will look like, but I think creating dialogue around these types of issues is the first step towards creating it.

Angelina on August 31st, 2008

Agreed on all terms and really enjoyed listening to this broadcast.

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