Читать книгу Nonprofit Kit For Dummies - Phillips Frances - Страница 7

The nonprofit sector is exciting. It encourages individuals with ideas about solving social problems or enhancing arts, culture, the environment, or education to act on those ideas. It creates a viable place within our society and economy for worthy activities that have little chance of commercial success. We think that it combines the best of the business world with the best of government social-service programs, bringing together the creativity, zeal, and problem solving from the business side with the call to public service from the government side.

We also find volunteerism inspiring. Everyone has heard stories of tightly knit communities where neighbors gather to rebuild a barn. That spirit of pitching in to help is the best part of living in a community in which people share values and ideas.

Many people these days live in diverse communities with neighbors who come from a wide variety of places and cultures. The nonprofit sector provides institutions and opportunities where everyone can come together to work toward the common good. Volunteerism gives everyone the chance to pitch in to rebuild “the barn.”

Applying the term voluntary sector to nonprofit organizations came about for a good reason. The Urban Institute estimates that in the United States, 62.8 million people volunteered at least once in 2014.

When you’re working in a nonprofit, you’ll likely be supervising volunteers – and they’ll likely supervise you. What we mean is that (with very few exceptions) nonprofit boards of directors serve as unpaid volunteers. And if you’re the executive director, your supervisors are the trustees or board members of the organization. At the same time, you likely depend on volunteers to carry out some or all the activities of the organization. You may serve as a volunteer yourself.

The word “supervision” sounds harsh, and we don’t mean to suggest that nonprofits are or should be run with an iron hand. The board of directors does have ultimate responsibility, however, for the finances and actions of a nonprofit organization, and, therefore, people serving in that capacity have a real duty to make sure that the organization has sufficient resources to carry out its activities and that it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.

We prefer to think of nonprofits as organized group activities. You need to depend on others to reach your goals, and they need to depend on you. We talk about boards of directors in Chapter 6 and working with volunteers in Chapter 9. If your nonprofit employs paid staff or hopes to someday, Chapter 10 provides some guidance in hiring and managing employees.