The Faces of the Nonprofit Sector

Nonprofits are not just organizations - they are the face of our communities.

Nonprofits embody the best spirit and values of our nation. They help millions of individuals and families daily. They protect, feed, heal, shelter, educate, and nurture our bodies and spirits. Nonprofits also give shape to our boldest dreams, highest ideals, and noblest causes. They turn our beliefs into action - as promoters of democracy, champions of the common good, incubators of innovation, laboratories of leadership, protectors of taxpayers, responders in times of trouble, stimulators of the economy, and weavers of community fabric.

From your local PTA to Harvard. From a neighborhood health clinic to the American Red Cross and the American Cancer Society. From your local community theatre to the Kennedy Center. From a local animal shelter to the Humane Society. Nonprofits are all around us and touch millions of lives each day. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has not been touched in some way by a nonprofit organization, whether they knew it or not.

Take, for example, this nonprofit life journey...

• Being born in a nonprofit hospital;
• Attending middle school and high school at a nonprofit;
• Studying at a nonprofit college; 
• Earning your undergraduate degree from a nonprofit university;
• Earning your professional degree from a nonprofit law school;
• Working several years at nonprofits in New York and Chicago;
• Honing your community-organizing skills by teaching at a nonprofit and running another nonprofit;
• Teaching constitutional law when employed by a nonprofit university;
• Playing basketball at countless different nonprofits;
• Serving as a board member of several other nonprofits; 
• Getting married in a nonprofit;
• Marrying the leader of a community nonprofit who became an executive at a nonprofit hospital; and 
• Sending your children to a nonprofit school.

This isn't just a hypothetical of how someone can be touched by nonprofits throughout their life. This is the journey that Barack Obama took that shaped his life before he became President of the United States. Take a moment and trace your life's nonprofit journey. Think about about the people you've interacted with on that journey - they are the face of the nonprofit sector, and so are you.