Just read the following this morning, https://truthout.org/articles/beyond-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/ Take a look, and then come back to consider the following that is at the heart of my book, Functional and Funded - Securing Your Nonprofit’s Assets From The Inside Out: From page 2:
“The spirit of this book is derived from the time-honored value of nonprofit organizations helping people respond to the challenges to the quality of their lives - especially those organizations whose people take seriously the principles articulated in the following article from the Industrial Areas Foundation, titled Standing For The Whole: “We believe in what we call the iron rule: never do for others what they can do for themselves. Never. This rule, difficult to practice consistently , sometimes violated, is central to our view of the nature of education, of leadership, of effective organizing. This cuts against the grain of some social workers and program peddlers who try to reduce people and families to clients, who probe for needs and lacks and weaknesses, not strength and drive, not vision and values, nor=t democratic and entrepreneurial initiative. The iron rule implies that the most valuable and enduring form of development - intellectual, social, political - is the development people freely choose and fully own.
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