Author: Peter Cantelon, Executive Director
Out of my years working within the information technology and software industries I have come to believe strongly in the idea that, as a whole, non-profits are (or should be) an open-source sector.
What do I mean when I say – open source? Well, what better place to find a definition than Opensource.com which says –
“The term open source refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.”
In many ways the spirit of the open-source movement, which was embraced by the software industry in the 90s as a way of combatting an increasingly closed, destructively competitive, and unfriendly environment that made it difficult to collaborate to the benefit of users, is similar to that of the nonprofit sector.
The values of the open-source movement match very nicely to the values of the nonprofit space, a space that exists to improve and create value for people and society and break down barriers to such things.
As a result of embracing such values non-profits typically lean into supporting one another rather than embracing the more typical competitive energies you find in other sectors. There is a recognition that we are all pulling together toward a common goal and as such we should encourage the sharing of resources and information and cheer one-another on along the way.
Jubilee Fund, like many non-profits, encourages employee involvement in other non-profits to work as volunteers in varying capacities. Staff served and are serving as board members, event speakers, mentors and more with other non-profits regardless of whether the organization has received financial assistance from Jubilee Fund.
We see this attribute as a defining characteristic of what sets a good nonprofit apart from the crowd and makes the sector one worthy of supporting.
A key difference in the nonprofit sector from other sectors is the idea that you can never have too many pulling toward the same goal, even with significant overlap. Can you have too many homeless shelters? Can you have too many transitional housing spaces or too many nonprofit builders? Sadly, with the current and ongoing state of things the answer to this is a resounding no.
Can you have too many Jubilee Funds? Once again, given that the need is well beyond our capacity to meet, the answer is no.
Many organizations in the nonprofit sector exist with the hope of one day seeing the sector so successful that they put themselves out of business. This is the opposite of other sectors where many businesses seem to exist to actively put others out of business and limit options. If you were to ask the president of Widgets Inc. if there can be too many widget manufacturers the answer would be a loud and resounding YES.
In other sectors products and resources need to be intentionally restrained so that demand can be heightened, and profits can be maximized. This is what drives competition, secrecy, and a lack of cooperation.
Before I make the nonprofit sector sound too amazing, I will say it too is prone to the weaknesses of other sectors like competitiveness. Often, when resources such as grants, donations and volunteer efforts shrink, even non-profits can fall into a competitive mindset as they scramble to outmaneuver others in securing all too scarce funding and assistance.
At the risk of sounding cynical, the nonprofit sector has become used to the shell game that is the “increased funding announcement” where one part of the sector is being trumpeted for a large increase while, in fact, there is no new funding, simply a movement of resources away from another part of the sector.
This is one of the reasons that the sector strongly encourages the open-source mindset. The more we share volunteer efforts, knowledge resources and communication, the less inclined we are to harmfully compete and the more successful we can be in presenting a strong and unified voice to those who need to hear it.
If you work with or support a nonprofit know that you are likely supporting many others in the sector as well. This is part of what it means to be an open-source space.