"Why do you go to work?"

Why do you get up and go to work each morning? Why do people get into the nonprofit world, versus the for-profit world? What motivates us in either direction? And what are some assumptions about the nonprofit and for-profit world? John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, details some ideas people hold around for-profit and nonprofit, and where he stands as a for-profit business leader. From The New Yorker’s Jan 4th 2010 article on John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods:

“This is a paradigm that has polarized our country and led to bad thinking. It’s holding the nation’s progress back. It’s as if there were a wall. And on one side of the wall is this belief that not-for-profits and government exist for public service, and that they’re fundamentally altruistic, that they have a deeper purpose, and they’re doing good in the world, and they have pure motives. On the other side of the wall are corporations. And they’re just selfish and greedy. They have no purpose other than to make money. They’re a bunch of psychopaths. And I’d like to tear that wall down. Human beings are obviously self-interested. We do look after ourselves, but we’re capable of love, empathy, and compassion, and I don’t see that business is any different.”

He went on, “We’re trying to do good. And we’re trying to make money. The more money we make, the more good we can do.” By this, he had in mind not the traditional philanthropic argument that more money earned equals more to give away but, rather, that a good company—that is, his company—which sells good things and treats its employees, shareholders, customers, and suppliers well, can spread goodness simply by thriving.”

So what does all of this have to do with fundraising? Well, a lot, actually.

Businesses have a lot to gain by associating with your nonprofit brand. For-profits give to your nonprofit because it makes them look good. It’s a function of their marketing department, or its more kind, and more recent euphemism, the “corporate responsibility” department. Businesses want to show your donors that they are corporations to be trusted, and want your donors to shop with them, or use their services.

Businesses also use employee volunteerism at nonprofits to give employees the idea that their jobs have more meaning than just contributing to the bottom line of the company. They say this improves retention and happiness of employees. This makes it easy to get sponsorship money and volunteers from large corporations.

This also begs the question, would their employees be happier working at nonprofits full time? Are nonprofits really holding all of the truth, justice and moral high ground cards? Are nonprofit workers intrinsically happier than for-profit workers? I used to think that they were. Now, I’m not so sure. The world isn’t as black and white as that.

For instance, does your nonprofit do all of the good it says it does? Is your nonprofit truly fulfilling its mission, and improving at its efficiency in fulfilling its mission year by year? Are your board members fully involved with the organization and its mission, or are they checked out? Does your nonprofit also exist to make money? How do you, as a fundraiser, ascertain these answers? This is up to you. But you will be a better fundraiser if you can answer these questions, because you can make a better case for support.

Some nonprofits can be just as corrupt as for profit organizations. Some nonprofits can and do take money from corrupt corporations, propping up the reputations of these corporations when they need it. Does the fact that they take this money to fulfill their missions negate where the money comes from? I would posit that taking this corporate money allows the corporations to have more of a say in how the nonprofit is run, and limits the advocacy work the nonprofit can do.

For example, when politicians fundraise for their political campaigns, corporate interests always have a say, which later leads to beneficial legislation and government contracts for the corporations. This was recently played out by the filibuster of Joe Lieberman over the public option healthcare bill in the Senate. Joe Lieberman received $10 million from insurance companies for his campaign. Is it any wonder that he is now fighting for their interests, instead of the interests of the people in his state?

To take another example, Bank of America is a large funder of the National Urban League, which supposedly advocates for the rights of African-Americans in Washington D.C.. Do we see the head of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, taking a stand against the bank bailouts, and requesting that this money instead go to displaced African-American homeowners or job creation programs? No.

There is no moral high ground for nonprofits or nonprofit workers. As long as nonprofits are beholden to corrupt corporate interests, they will fail to affect real change in legislation. They are doing their best in a flawed system, and they need to do better.

As a fundraiser, you can take the moral high ground. You can work to make individual donations and major gifts the focus of your development plan, and start asking questions of your leaders, “Why do we accept money from these corporations?”