Re:Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
by NickM on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:58AM
(#18075958)
I mostly agree with you, but I wouldn't entirely blame nonprofits. There's a lot of public pressure on nonprofits to reduce costs as much as possible because everyone is obsessed with "overhead". This TED talk explains the problems with this situation really well:
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_abou...
Choice quote: "so in the for-profit sector, the more value you produce the more money you can make, but we don't like non-profits to use money to incentive people to produce more in social service. We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make much money helping other people; interesting that we don't have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money not helping other people."
Re:Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
by tvanantwerp on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @12:14PM
(#18077437)
Strongly agree. The external pressure from well-meaning but uninformed donors to "cut costs" isn't helping the situation.
Re:Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
by taphangum on Friday September 28, 2018 @05:20AM
(#18092026)
"Interesting that we don't have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money not helping other people."
If for-profits didn't help people, they literally would not exist.
Re:Ask HN: What was the best decision you made in your career?
by NickM on Friday September 28, 2018 @04:08PM
(#18096634)
I think you're misinterpreting what he's saying (which might be my fault for expecting the quote to make sense outside the context of the talk). The quote is referring to the fact that we frown on people making money from running charitable organizations that help people, but making money from running a for-profit business that helps nobody is considered fine and admirable.
One friend of mine is a developer at a nonprofit, and I know he's earning in the 25th percentile for his skills and experience in this region. I am certain his passion for the cause helped lead to this. Ironically, this situation has, over time, eroded his passion for the cause!
Nonprofits lose a lot of good people doing this, but they don't seem to care. Maybe because they've always got fresh meat ready to take someone's place? Maybe because donors always pressure for low overhead costs? Hard to say, but it's foolish. Only harms everyone involved.