I saw Eric Ressler’s viral post on LinkedIn, and heard him talk about it on the ‘Untapped Philanthropy’ podcast (a highly recommended listen, btw!)

He makes such important points for us to consider. I’ve always thought language was the most important trivial issue for us to care about. In the grand scheme of our work, it doesn’t really mean much, since our programmes, our contexts, our challenges, are so much more important than what we call ourselves and each other. However, because we use language to communicate in all kinds of ways, it’s also essential to how we view the world around us, how we label ideas and people, and therefore informs how we view and treat them.

So therefore, what we call our sector is important. It’s strange to compare our work to the ‘norm’ of making profits as the defining characteristic. Taking our work/organisations/businesses seriously is an important step, since the financial side is just one of many – and many much more interesting sides!

I use the phrase ‘social impact’ instead of nonprofit, but running a website being what it is, I also do use the word ‘nonprofit’ from time to time, for the sake of SEO! What do you use, and does it matter? I’d love your thoughts!