Corporate Citizenship by David Logan

Author:David Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Panoma Press Ltd

The Emotional Posture of the Non-Profit Sector

In this analysis, the non-profits tend to have one of two postures towards society and the other sectors. First, the service-providing and caring organisations are inclined to be like government but act on a smaller scale as benevolent parent figures. They do everything they can to ease people’s suffering, help them along and care for other species and the natural environment. They do everything a caring parent should do and often with real love and commitment. This passionate engagement with people and the environment often leads them to real breakthroughs in how to deal with issues because it taps into the emotions of people, generates new insights and gets them to change their attitudes and behaviour voluntarily. This close engagement gives these non-profits a special status in the eyes of the people because they work so closely with them and are consequently very responsive, also they are not seeking a profit out of the interaction and exist purely to give service; in principle at least.

Non-profit campaigning organisations, on the other hand, have an element of the rebellious child about them. They see injustice in the world and the environment around them being destroyed by the negligent parent figures of governments and companies; consequently they scream out in protest. It was said earlier that many campaigning non-profits will see themselves in the role of the child in the fable who points out that the emperor has no clothes. Ordinary people often admire this stance and when the approval rating of brands is surveyed around the world and non-profits are included, campaigning organisations such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace are ranked much higher in terms of trust than most corporate brands. They are seen to be acting with passion and integrity in the public interest; they are trusted in a way that for-profit companies, politicians and governments are not.

To say that campaigning non-profits have an element of the rebellious child about them is not in any way to disparage them. A healthy ID is vital to the development of a healthy person and campaigning non-profits represent a feeling in society that needs to be expressed. These organisations help to keep the other two sectors healthy by questioning their role in society. They represent an expansion of the democratic process beyond the parliamentary process, just as the campaigners against the slave trade first did, by taking the issues directly to the people. With modern means of communication this role has become truly global. Many in government and companies know they are at a moral disadvantage when dealing with such non-profits because they are ‘compromised’ by being engaged in the practical business of running everyday life. From a for-profit company perspective, this makes campaigning organisations difficult and dangerous to deal with.

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