The world needs fewer nonprofits

We work with a lot of nonprofit groups around the country, and the work they do is amazing! Nonprofits are essential, and I’m grateful for the millions of people that pour their time and money into them.

The problem is that there are too many, and it doesn’t need to be that way.

To be clear, I’m not saying there should be less funding available, but simply that a bit more focus would help in a lot of areas.

As Alan Cantor shared back in 2016, it’s largely a problem of resources:

“There are currently 1.4 million nonprofits in the United States. That’s one-point-four-million organizations that need to recruit board members, raise money, keep minutes, file financial returns, hire staff, pay staff, develop logos, maintain Facebook pages, buy copy paper, apply for grants, update websites, design strategic planning retreats, and — assuming there’s time — do a little bit of good in the process.

As a consultant over the last few years, I’ve seen time and again how nonprofit organizations, many of which provide critically important services, have been dealing with chronic budget deficits, high staff turnover, and uncertainty. I find myself involved in conversations to help these nonprofits merge or shut down or reconfigure their missions to survive.

And yet each year there are more and more nonprofits competing for the same limited resources. It makes no sense.“