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ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION

Written by Eduardo Romero, on March 03, 2010

The Roundtable is hosting an event on March 18 on 'Are There Too Many Nonprofits?', responding to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Capital Area Food Bank's Lynn Brantley jump started the dialogue saying, "are you guys asking the right question?" Lynn's email follows:

"Your event title is “Too many nonprofits?”, asking if that is the right question. That would be hard to

imagine as there is so much need and so many good people responding to those vast needs in so many appropriate ways. All too often when we engage with poverty issues and the poor, we tend to blame the victim - and now, are we blaming ourselves?

Nonprofits are all scrapping for pennies when the myriad of problems loom so large, the needs so overwhelming. Solutions with and beyond just nonprofits have to be explored in much greater depth. We have to realize that we as a city, a region, and as a nation, need to create the political will to first, more holistically address our issues and then, move forward to change this dynamic.

Asking “are there too many nonprofits?” is not precise enough and can be misleading. The question should be “Are there too many inefficient nonprofits?” If that is the question, the answers (and the discussion) addressing that problem will be much different.

You can RSVP for our March 18 event. Send Eduardo an email if you want to reply to Lynns' comments online.

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