OK, everyone, sit down, we need to have a talk. Every once a while, someone—usually from outside the sector—mentions their goal of forming their own nonprofit. "It has been my life-long dream to quit the rat race and start a possum therapy organization. It’s kind of like one of those equine therapy programs, but with possums instead of horses."

if you find your blood pressure rising whenever you hear someone plans to start a nonprofit, it is understandable. However, we need to lighten up a bit. Although there are lots of articles and blog posts discouraging people from starting nonprofits (here’s a good one), the reality is that we are always going to be facing well-intentioned individuals who feel that burning desire to found their own nonprofit. Persuading them to not do it may work in a few instances, but if we want systemic change, we need to look at this holistically. Here are some things for us all to think about:

  1. People usually mean well. They may want to start a nonprofit, but they’re still human beings! Human beings! They want to make the world better, and with the current state of things, we need as much of that idealism as we can get. Let’s back off and stop treating people who want to start a nonprofit as if they personally spit in our hummus. We can help and guide them and channel their passion or even discourage them without crushing their spirits.
  2. We don’t subject for-profits to this level of irritation. Are there really too many nonprofits? Maybe. It is certainly not hard to start one. But have we thought about how no one ever says, "Hey, there are too many dang cafes around! Why don’t they all just merge into one giant café? Also, what’s with all these new cupcake and poke places cropping up like mushrooms?! Let’s burn the barn of whoever dares to start up another small business!"
  3. Some of our advice is limited and not feasible. Let’s face it, even though we give people advice like “Find an existing nonprofit and see if you can open a program under them instead of forming your own org,” the reality is that most of us would get really annoyed if anyone comes up to us and be all like, "Hey, I have a great idea for a program! It’s called Unicycles for Veterans!" We have our strategic plans set usually, and most of us have no time nor patience to help anyone start any new stuff within our own orgs.
  4. Nonprofits led by marginalized communities often form as a direct response to the lack of organizations effectively addressing their needs. While there are many good mainstream organizations, there are also many that claim to serve communities of color, communities of disabilities, LGBTQIA communities, rural communities, etc., while tokenizing them and absorbing all the credit and funding. Instead of being quick to dismiss new nonprofits that form, let’s examine why they formed and who is leading them. If they are led by communities most affected by injustice, we need to be supportive before being dismissive.

Read the full article about the ire against new nonprofits by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.