NZARC Blog

As recently reported by Mark Rosenman, ‘did you know that a recent study showed that in the US, 12 million baby boomers want to start their own non-profit or socially oriented business over the next decade. In the US, a million non-profit groups already exist, and plenty of for-profit ventures are dedicated in part to providing some social benefit.'

In New Zealand, we already see 25,473 registered charities – and that is at today’s count! We can expect that there would be a similar feeling amongst our population. How does this translate to things like solving community based issues; if there were more non-profits we would see more fragmentation of delivery of services to those who need it the most.

Would it not be better to strengthen those non-profit entities already making great positive difference and change at a community level? Wouldn’t it be better to harness the passion and willingness to ‘make a difference’, especially given the entrepreneurial bent that many New Zealanders have. This is a time when the non-profit community is being encouraged to be more efficient, and at the same time be more visible in the way in which the make a difference. 

Our challenge therefore is to channel the energy and passion of this group into existing organisations. Perhaps we can shift the focus to an ability to work collectively, building stronger, more effective and efficient non-profit organisations.