Competition in the non-profit world - good or bad?

The good news is that this is a great time for the non-profit world. High calibre candidates are looking for jobs in the non-profit world and in general there is a lot of genuine interest in doing good for the world. Top business schools are offering courses in Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise, Development... and the list goes on. And these courses are very popular and are very often oversubscribed!

With many top school MBA candidates choosing the non-profit world to work in, strong management has become part of the non-profit world. In addition to this, successful entrepreneurs are contributing capital and skills with several starting non-profit organizations targeted at helping a cause dear to them. With global boundaries disintegrating with the power of the internet, the footprint of non-profit organizations has expanded beyond imagination.

But with all this, and yes there is a but, the non-profit world is getting crowded and in some cases getting inefficient with several organizations going after the same cause. Not dissimilar to many for profit companies offering the same product to the same market. Competition has become so strong that you will find terms like "market size", "scalability", etc. making their way into the "business" plans for non-profits. Private funders are now demanding to see business plans that show scalability, sustainability and in some cases a path to profitability. So, at least in terms of management, best practices and jargon, the differences between the profit and non-profit worlds are slowly disappearing. 

Bringing private sector best practices to the non-profit world is definitely a good thing - it brings along with it accountability and demands solid, well thought out plans. But one could argue that forcing private sector goals on a cause related organization could negatively impact progress because progress itself has a different definition in the non-profit world. 

Competition is forcing several philanthropists to spread their money across several non-profit organizations. As a result many small organizations are not able to raise the critical amount of money needed to run their operations. So many well meaning non-profits are shutting doors, leaving behind broken promises and unfulfilled dreams. Wouldn't it be great if instead of competition there was collaboration between these organizations? Yes, it would but passionate, well-meaning founders of these organizations are not willing to give up their vision or change it to work with others which means collaboration will remain low.

I don't know how non-profits can take only the good from the for-profit world and leave behind whatever does not work. But I am sure we will eventually find the balance. Until then, we need to focus on making the non-profits we are involved in as successful as possible - and success can mean different things!

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