The topic of renaming the non profit sector came up a lot at the Washington State Nonprofit Conference last Friday. That’s because Dan Pallotta, author of Uncharitable and shaker-upper-of-all-things-traditionally-nonprofit, gave the keynote. He’s the guy who pointed out that, in Latin, non profit means “non progress” and that that’s a pretty lame name for a group of people hell bent on making progress on a better world.

While we continue the hunt for a better name for the non profit sector–one that might actually stick so people would actually change behavior and stop saying it–I’ve got a suggestion.

People who work in the for profit space don’t say, “I work for an S-Corp/C-Corp/LLC/etc.” They say, “I work for a bank.” or “I’m in IT project management.” or “I build websites.”

Why do those in the ‘for purpose’ space, as Pencils for Purpose Founder Adam Braun would say, start with, “I work for a nonprofit. We [insert blurb about what you do]”? Why do we feel compelled to preface our answer by clarifying our tax status?

Taking out the tax status reference would be a giant step toward being known for what we do and why we do it, rather than how the IRS refers to us.

That can only be good, right?

The post “I work for a non profit.” appeared first on Claxon Communication.

Instead of thinking of extreme, think ‘mini’. Check out my presentation from the 2012 Washington State Nonprofit Conference for examples of how to make over attitudes, actions, visuals and words to achieve greater impact.