Myths
Myths – Pervasive false beliefs about a number of specific social challenges that community-based non-profit organizations seek to solve.
- Myth – Food handouts are an appropriate response to food insecurity.
- Reality - The underlying causes of hunger cannot be resolved using 20th-century tactics. Ad hoc local efforts respond to “today’s problem” but do very little to resolve the ongoing challenge.
- Myth - Emergency shelters are an entirely reasonable response to the challenge of homelessness.
- Reality - Emergency shelters are just a patch and can contribute to the creation of a lifestyle of homelessness.
Misunderstandings
Misunderstandings – prevailing misconceptions that community-based non-profits have developed about what they should do and how they ought to perform.
- Misunderstanding – Every community-based non-profit organization should be “run on a shoestring.”
- Reality - Community-based non-profits should be well funded so that they can develop unparalleled operational excellence because it elevates the dignity of the people who are being served.
- Misunderstanding – Any kind of charitable activity is a good thing.
- Reality – There some circumstances where charitable activities are appropriate however, on a broad scale, the net result of society’s significant charitable efforts over the past 50 years has been that more people are “doing good work,” and the number of people in need is growing.