Jan
I signed up for a NYTimes online account last week. It takes you through one of those generic demographic quizzes before allowing you to sign up, ostensibly (hopefully!) so the NYTimes can better cater to its audience if it knows them better. Who are you? How old are you? What is your income? What is your occupation? I have no problem answering any of those questions until the last one.
That’s because these kind of information gathering forms rarely seem to include nonprofit occupation options. Usually there will be a “nonprofit” option under industry, but that’s about as far as it goes. You won’t see Board Liaison or Program Assistant or Development Director as an option on most of them. Perhaps you’ll see Executive Director.
This points to the larger issue the square-peg for-profit world and the round-hole non-profit world. There are many parallels – sure, we both need accountants – but you can’t stuff for-profit perspective on the social capital sector. It’s frustrating that no one seems to be willing to to take the time to capture accurate, segmented data about nonprofit workers in these marketing surveys. Given that nonprofit workers make up 10% of the United States’ non-agricultural workforce, I hope that they get their acts in gear.
I want the right to be harassed and annoyed by companies I give my information to in a way that will genuinely harass and annoy me, not in a way that would harass and annoy a business development professional at a for-profit company. God. Get it right, people.