I have spent 22 years in 2 different nonprofit organizations in leadership roles and another 17 years in non leadership roles 3 different NP agencies and I never saw the malfeasance you describe. Sorry Cog but I call bullshit. Do you know why NP’s go “begging” its because often government funding doesn’t cover the administration costs (you know things like rent, utilities front office staff wages) paper computers etc. at least not adequately.
Until a few years before I retired one of the “begging bowls” we were given was the opportunity to empty ash trays and wait on customers in casinos and bingo halls. I was so happy when the government took away that revenue stream but that just meant new ones had to be found like telethons, car washes, etc.
Oh and another fun fact is that fundraising couldn’t come at the expense of program hours which meant that it was all volunteer hours. which meant asking staff and board members to give up their Saturday’s to stand around in the drive through lane at McDonalds handing out balloons or some other crap. And being honestly grateful for the donation of a few thousand dollars. Oh and finally every nonprofit receiving a certain amount of money from the government had to have an annual financial audit which was another unfunded liability. But the fact that you would dare compare what I and others working in the non-profit help organizations to a church official - man that really hurts. No more bananas for you monkey man.
Wow! We are from different necks of the woods. I see NPs rushing to spend government funds on anything and everything they can so they can run out of money before the fiscal year. This way they can claim “not enough revenue from the government” and get more in the next fiscal year. I’ve seen city management dump tens of thousands into useless projects, repairing streets that don’t need repair, replacing brick sidewalks that don’t need replacing, and much more. And doing this when the city had real needs, like cleaning up a park. Of course with Government Grant money, you must spend money in specific ways or lose it. So there is a mad rush to spend that money. Our experience is certainly different.
I wrote to Dr. Asimov when I was a teen, and he replied. He was actually very good about this, and I always loved his work. I’ve read about 350 of his 495 books.
In his writing, he was an advocate for women, he denounced homophobia, he hated racism, and often warned about global warming and climate change. He even (quite accurately!) predicted Youtube around 1980 (please see below).
Yet as much as I admire and worship his work, I might have belted him in the mouth if I had to be around him in person.
It seems that he was a serial groper who automatically fondled (almost always against their will) any woman unfortunate enough to get within arm’s reach. He was not above grabbing some strange woman that he just met and pinning her against a wall with his body, or grabbing a woman and refusing to let her go.
I’ve even spoke with a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted in this manner by Asimov when she was a 16 year old at a science fiction convention.
His son David was busted–in 1999, about 7 years after Asimov’s death–as one of the United States’ largest producer and distributer of hardcore child pornography . . . with a lot of material involving toddlers engaging in bestiality with animals.
David’s obsession with child porn and Asimov’s habit of sexually abusing woman doesn’t seem very coincidental to me.
I do strongly believe that both Isaac and his son David were born with high-functioning autism, or what used to be called Asperger’s Syndrome . . . which I have as well, and is probably a reason why his work resonates with me so much.
Local government in the UK use the same tactic, have been for years, though to be fair, it started with Westminster cutting their annual budget if they failed to spend it all, so rather than reward fiscal responsibility they rewarded the opposite, by increasing the budget of those that overspent. It naturally backfired, so now they are refusing to bail out councils that overspend, with catastrophic effects for the most vulnerable of course.
It’s ironic and tragic that whilst shit inexorably rolls “downhill” from the richest to the poorest, money just as inexorably rolls the other way…
My advice FWIW, save and buy a house, and as soon as you’re able pay off the mortgage, then double down on that saving, always have at least half in cash, and split the remainder between investments and gold, move away from risk steadily as you move out of your twenties.
And ffs I can’t stress this enough, get a fucking prenup every fucking time. Set up trusts for any children that are ring-fenced from divorce settlements.
LOL, don’t get me started. What I hated most was “We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.” 3 Job openings, 150 applicants, and we have to hire a minority, but we can not advertise for a minority. That would be illegal. But it is perfectly okay for the government to tell us that we must hire a minority or lose all government funding. Now that is legal. Go figure. So here we are, 150 applicants, and we have to sort through all the white people and makeup excuses for not hiring them that are illegal. If we used the same excuses on a Back, Hispanic, Female, or Asian, we would be sued. But use is on white people and it is perfectly okay. We must meet those government quarterly quotas and keep that free money coming in. (I would do away with the current welfare system and EOE completely if I were Spiderman.)
The reason that happens is that governments will often claw back unspent revenue. Sometimes even revenue gleaned from begging bowls. That sounds reasonable right, except that the following year’s funding will be reduced by that much. Seems reasonable right? Well yeah except for the fact that prices increase year over year, staff hope for some wage increase, maybe you hope to bring in a benefit plan so you can retain staff, or maybe there are some training opportunities coming up. So at year end you try as best you can to earmark items that you use a lot. You might buy an extra box of photo copy paper, or replace a computer. I’ve never rushed around spending for the sake of spending and I have never gone into deficit for the sake of increasing my funding.
Its possible that you live in one of those necks of the woods where people generally believe that it’s always possible for the other guy to tighten his belt one more notch so that he can let his out one notch.
In your first run at NP’s you equated them with church’s and now you have shifted to comparing them with government. I wonder what your experience has been leading a non profit because frankly @Cognostic you are sounding increasingly like a government contract manager.
NPs are the government. They are social welfare programs that survive on the government dime. If they were self-sufficient, they would be private. As for Churches, they are big business and play the same games. Why is this not obvious? As government contract managers go, I got to write RFPs for government contracts for social welfare programs. I also worked support services for the US Army. Do you want to know about overspending, lying, and cheating on government contracts? LOL. My neck of the woods was the extremely affluent area of Orange County. Ca. No one was tightening their belts. Everyone was making money, Even the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.
Yes. Because any government agency or agency receiving funding from the government should, imo, reflect the demographics of the people from whom those funds were gathered in the first place.
If you are suggesting that equality in employment has been reached then you are just wrong. If you think that white boys don’t have a built-in leg up then you are just wrong.
“ 3 Job openings, 150 applicants, and we have to hire a minority”….yep, because it’s good for the community. And until / unless all things are on an even playing field from birth forward, we need tools like the EEOC.
Folks can whine about “reverse discrimination” all they want. Personally, whenever I hear it, I hear someone trying desperately to protect white privilege. Can a straight, white, male’s life be tough? Sure. But their gender, skin color, or sex wasn’t one of the things making it tougher. TBH, the U.S. is lucky folks want equality instead of revenge.
Alright…I’ve said my piece, blast away if you will now.
Ok so your assertion is that NP’s are the government because they deliver social welfare on the government dime. So is it the government dime that makes them government or is it the social welfare aspect of their work. Not that it matters because the assertion is without merit. For example there are all sorts of “private” companies that wouldn’t survive without government contracts.
NP’s are an invention of government that represent the ultimate belt tightening notch. Employees have lower wages than government employees, their benefits, if they exist at all, are fewer, they are often expected to participate in unpaid work.
In terms of their work I worked for a NP Family Center as a child and youth counsellor/ Executive Director. The agency was funded by the mental health branch of the government health ministry. We were formed to get around the criteria that government mental health could only treat the patient with a diagnosed mental illness whereas we could work with the entire family. Of course we were paid less, no dental plan no extended health no pension but we could be innovative in our approaches. We were not the government.
I also wrote RFP’s as well, mostly because unlike the agencies in orange county we couldn’t afford grant writers.
I’ve always thought that those with Asperger’s intensely disliked physical contact with others. Like the way Sheldon Cooper was portrayed on The Big Bang Theory.
People have trouble imagining how a person can find something painful and crave it at the same time.
I’m sure that you’ve–at some point in your life–had an intense craving for a specific food . . . so let us assume that you crave a thick, well-cooked, juicy steak.
Now, let us also assume that you’ve had some very painful dental work done at the dentist.
You can now see that even though you crave a thick steak, it still hurts your mouth when you eat it.
Physical touch for an autistic person is a lot like that . . . it is craved, yet painful at the same time, if I’m making any sense.
I could care less about equality in employment based on skin color. You can either do the job or you cannot. And if the government is going to force me to hire a Black person, Chinese, Woman, Hispanic, or Handicapped, then I should be able to advertise for that person and not give false hope and waste the time of hundreds of other people. That is the right thing to do. If you are going to be a bigot, be honest about it. We do not have to hire minorities. We have to hire qualified people. Hiring a person based on their minority status is sick. Excluding qualified people based on their skin color is sick. I don’t care how you spin it. EEOC is a joke.
What is the richest demographic in America today? Do you have any idea? In 2021, Asian households had a median net worth of $320,900, compared with $250,400 for White households.Perhaps we should enact laws restricting Asians from getting jobs or education. We can make the EEOC applicable to all minorities except Asians.
Okay Cyber, I honestly sound like a horse’s ass. I get it. I don’t believe in white privilege. You will not convince me the EEOC is a good thing. I disagree with the welfare state. I lean conservative on many of these matters and this is a longwinded political debate that has raged for years. It’s not going to be resolved between us. I understand that something had to be done to address racial inequality in the country. I am not a fan of what has been done. The welfare state is a failure, EEOC is a failure, and the current political response seems to be ‘Just keep doing more of it.’
Okay, I blasted AWAY. I fully respect your ‘piece’ and know full well you are not alone in your opinions. While my style is oafish and crude, it is not intended as offense but merely as expression, and possibly a little entertainment.
I agree 100%. In my current job I’m responsible for hiring new people for the team and I always look for the best qualified, no matter what their race, gender, or origin. In fact, since the start of the Covid pandemic, all of my interviewing has been done on the phone, so I literally have no idea what race the candidates happen to be, nor do I care.
I think a good way to think about this situation is “two wrongs don’t make a right”.
@Cognostic & @SodaAnt, you both mentioned “qualifications”. I consider the ability of a person to bring diversity to the workplace an important qualification. Studies indicate that diverse organizations are more productive, more innovative, solve problems faster, more effective, more engaged, etc.
So you can say you’re hiring the most qualified but I challenge you to re-consider what most qualified means.
I think perhaps you have to have to work in HR or have direct experience hiring and firing to grasp the seriousness and the expansiveness of the issue. I hear you can look for the most qualified person and I think that is great. The same thing is not possible for any agency that accepts government funding. You must hire minority personnel and you may not advertise for those personnel. In a very real way, companies are forced into bigotry and there is nothing fair or justified in the process. The best people are frequently passed over. What you look for is the best minority.
This is very simple math. I have 3 vacancies and 150 applicants. For ease of math, the population of Hispanics in my area is 10%. My company is government-funded and I must maintain a 10% minority status or lose my funding. Of the 150 applicants, let’s pretend 10% are minorities. I have 15 people to choose from instead of a pool of 150. Where am I more likely to find the most qualified person, in a pool of 150 or from a pool of 15? I’m sorry, but generally speaking, my choice was among the cream of the crap. Once in a while, I did get lucky. The numbers are not against minorities. The numbers are against those without sufficient drive, motivation, and qualifications.
In the end, people get hired who are not a good fit for positions and who do not work out well. They cost companies time and expense in training, sick days, trips to the labor board, and more. They are not happy and their coworkers are not happy. What’s worse is that as soon as they do not pull their weight everyone knows why they were hired. They are often (not always) set up for failure by a system that allows people with inferior skills to be hired over those with better skills. That is just the way it is. The system does not work. The way to get a good job is to make yourself the best candidate for that job.
I suppose this is another worldview that we are going to disagree on. My brain was warped forever once I read my first Ayn Rand book. I don’t think it can be repaired. “Poor little monkey brain.”
What you say may be true for some types of jobs, but for mine (development of firmware for embedded systems) not so much. “Most qualified” here means someone who has a deep understanding of the hardware and software components and how they interact. We do have a diverse organization, but that wasn’t by design–we hired the most competent people based on their technical qualifications and didn’t even consider things like race, gender, or nationality. We are not a government organization (or a government contractor), so we didn’t have any artificial quotas to fulfill.
Oh, ffs, do you really think this, or I, meant it was appropriate to hire someone without an otherwise germane skill set for a position and choose based solely on gender, sex, skin color, etc?
Set up trusts for any children that are ring-fenced from divorce settlements.