I have been involved in the nonprofit sector my entire life. As you might imagine, I’ve heard almost everything negative someone can say about nonprofits and how they operate.

“Nonprofits are laid-back and not as well-run as businesses.”

“Nonprofits barely have any resources and will take anybody or anything.”

And my personal favorite: “I don’t trust nonprofits, they’re just poorly-run money laundering schemes.”

While this may be the case for some nonprofits — including ones with which I’ve had personal experience — there are many charitable organizations doing legitimate work that are overlooked by the general public.

Take, for instance, the Gates Foundation. Founded in 2000 by Bill and Melinda Gates, it’s one of the largest charitable foundations in the world and has over $71 million in assets. 

The mission of this nonprofit is to “reduce inequities and improve lives around the world.” This is quite the general statement — it’s tricky to make a substantial difference toward inequities as a whole. However, the Gates Foundation has been successful in pursuing its mission and has made significant contributions in impoverished areas of the world.

There are many nonprofits that have achieved the same goals — Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross and Feeding America, to name a few. 

So why don’t we talk about their results more often? It’s much harder to measure the success of a nonprofit than a for-profit business. 

Let’s use the example of a nonprofit organization that deals with mental health awareness. How would they measure their effectiveness at combating this issue? There are no clear quantitative or qualitative measures to show their success or failure. 

With such non-concrete goals, the work of a nonprofit is never truly complete. There is such a need internationally that it is hard for these organizations to determine when they have accomplished their mission.

Without the quantitative measures people are used to seeing in relation to success, it’s difficult to have meaningful dialogue about what nonprofits have been able to accomplish and make it understandable for the average person. 

The real problem is how we talk about them. Words have power, and we can use them to shape the narrative of everything surrounding us.

Why do we call them nonprofits?

The main difference between nonprofits and the private sector is that nonprofits use all additional profits made to further their stated mission. This can vary depending on what kind of organization it is and how they utilize resources to fight for their cause.

We don’t define the private or public sectors by how they deal with revenues and how they pay taxes. Why do we make that distinction for nonprofits? 

Nonprofit organizations fight for a specific cause and can fill the cracks that no other sector of the economy can. We should be talking about them in a manner that legitimizes the work they do.

In some cases, the status of being a nonprofit hurts more than it helps. 

Many people view nonprofits as businesses, but few treat them as such. They recognize the work and talent that goes into making a nonprofit organization successful, but they don’t recognize the legitimacy of working for one.

There are many spaces in the nonprofit sector for working professionals, and the need is growing daily. Many of these organizations offer competitive salaries and benefits compared to the private and public sectors. 

You would think that at a university like Texas A&M — one of our Core Values is Selfless Service, for crying out loud — students would be encouraged to consider careers in service to nonprofit organizations.

This is a problem, but what can we do about it?

The simplest answer is to give your time to nonprofit organizations. Making an impact in your community makes it easier for everyone to see their purpose. Having an established presence in the community is one of the most important signs of a nonprofit’s long-term success, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep it that way.

In the meantime, we need to get better at showing off the accomplishments of the nonprofit sector and making the impact more visible to the general public.

Wyatt Pickering is a business honors and finance sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.