• Home
  • About
  • BOOK!!
  • Contact/FAQ
  • Shop
  • Speaking
  • Support NAF!
  • Advertise
  • Report Crappy Funders

Nonprofit AF

Exploring the fun and frustrations of nonprofit work

NAF logo
NAF logo
  • Home
  • About
  • BOOK!!
  • Contact/FAQ
  • Shop
  • Speaking
  • Support NAF!
  • Advertise
  • Report Crappy Funders

social impact sector

Botox on a unicorn: Should the nonprofit sector change its name?

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Vu

hongkongfood_downstairs_10Hi everyone, I am heading back to the US this week. It has been a fun vacation, though kind of exhausting with a two-year-old who refuses to eat anything or sleep more than three consecutive hours. This, and being an ED for nearly ten years, has taken a toll on me. I keep getting comments like, “Your son is so cute! Hm…you must have started your family late, huh? How old are you, 44, 45?” After the fifth time, asked by a tofu dessert vendor, I just said, “No, I did not start a family late! I just look way older than I am! Time has not been kind to me! Thanks for reminding me, lady!” Then I softly wept into my bowl of hot silken tofu with ginger caramel sauce, thinking that maybe I should get some cosmetic surgery here, since it’s way cheaper than in the US.

But anyway, today’s topic. In the past few months, I’ve been hearing more and more people suggest that the nonprofit sector should change its name. “Defining ourselves by something we’re not is pretty ridiculous,” said some very smart people during a happy hour. “Yeah!” I agreed, getting up in arms, “that’s like calling a woman a ‘non-man’! Or hummus a ‘non-guacamole’! Ridiculous! Let’s grab our torches and pitchforks!”Continue reading →

Posted in Funder Relations, Fundraising, leadership, Marketing, nonprofit field, Unicorns 24 Comments

Primary Sidebar

Grant Station Ad

Support NAF
FOLLOW NAF BY EMAIL. MAKE TUESDAYS SUCK LESS!
Enter your email address below and get notice of hilarious new posts each Tuesday morning. Unsubscribe at any time.

Random Posts

  • Vaccine Mandates are Legal and Effective. It’s Time for Nonprofits and Foundations to Implement Them.
  • 3 reasons we all need to go to more happy hours
  • Support a great nonprofit while naming a baby
  • The case for nonprofit partying
  • Excerpts from romance novels set in the nonprofit sector

Share NAF

FOLLOW NAF BY EMAIL. MAKE TUESDAYS SUCK LESS!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 51.5K other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • Funders, please stop trying to be unique snowflakes
  • How to stay motivated when everything is on fire and you look and feel like crap
  • Instructions on not giving up: Let’s conserve our energy for the battles ahead
  • Brutally honest answers to 15 pointless questions our sector keeps asking itself
  • The Tide is Surging: The No King Protests and the Beginning of the End of Fascism in the US

Categories

  • AI (1)
  • Board Relations (32)
  • Capacity Building (31)
  • Community Engagement (79)
  • Community organizing (10)
  • Cultural Competency (46)
  • Data (7)
  • Donor Relations (48)
  • ED Life (86)
  • Finance (34)
  • Funder Relations (179)
  • funding (17)
  • Fundraising (212)
  • Grantwriting (119)
  • Hiring (6)
  • Humor (59)
  • leadership (86)
  • Marketing (6)
  • nonprofit (9)
  • nonprofit field (311)
  • Office Culture (82)
  • Personal (36)
  • philanthropy (35)
  • Policy and Advocacy (21)
  • Race, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (119)
  • Random stuff (89)
  • self-care (26)
  • Special Events (25)
  • Staff Dynamics (30)
  • Uncategorized (40)
  • Unicorns (62)
  • US Culture (17)
  • volunteers (4)
  • Work-Life Balance (31)
  • Writing (1)
  • Zombies (14)

Archives

Tags

board board of directors capacity building collective impact communities of color community-centric fundraising community engagement cultural competency diversity donors equity feedback foundations funders funding funding dynamics fundraising game of thrones grantmaking grants grantwriting hiring hummus humor inclusion leadership nonprofit nonprofit funding nonprofit humor overhead oxford comma philanthropy power dynamics race restricted funding salary Seahawks self-care social justice special events sustainability taxes Thanksgiving unicorn unicorns

© Vu Le NWB Consulting
Design: SN