Why do we define ourselves in the ‘negative’? Dick Celeste, my mentor, mensch and senior adviser to The Suddes Group, said to us (again) when we were in Colorado last week, “You’re not making a big enough deal of this idea of no more not-for-profit.”
Anyone who has even barely touched the surface of our For Impact thinking knows that right under our controlling insight of IMPACT drives INCOME (not the other way around) is the idea that this is NOT about not-for-profit, 501c3, tax-exempt, charity, etc.
We are the only industry/sector who defines itself in the NEGATIVE!
And, on top of that, there are a ton of companies in the ‘real world’ who aren’t in the not-for-profit space… yet are definitely not-for-profit! (Having started 19 businesses in the last 40 years, I can attest that many (most?) of those should have been incorporated as a 501c3!)
In fact, 50 of the Fortune 500 largest companies in the United States are NOT-FOR-PROFIT! That’s 10% of the Fortune 500 companies that showed a loss last year!
I know you get the point. Screw for-profit, not-for-profit, NGO, and all the other really outdated words that are used to define our space… our calling… our commitment to change the world.
It’s all about being a FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATION.
