When We Disagree

By Aaron Hurst on July 3, 2008 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jill Blair, one of the leading thinkers in the field of philanthropy, commented on the blog "Canary in the Coal Mine" that one of the critical roles of the nonprofit is to address "a misalignment or fundamental disagreement about the nature and content of the social contract between citizens and government."  While most of us agree that society needs to provide some basic safety net for our citizens, there remain areas where a minority of Americans see a need in society but the majority does not care to intervene.

This was apparent in the early days of HIV/AIDS before the government and broader society came to accept the epidemic.  In that case, it was more of an issue of early service in a politically charged issue.  Nonprofits are the first steps on the march of progress.

In other examples, they may serve as an ongoing community institution for a community that is out of step with the majority of society.  For example:
- Hunters Helping Kids is a nonprofit that helps preserve the tradition of arming children with guns to kills animals.
- Farm Sanctuary helps to rescue animals from farms to prevent their slaughter.

In all these cases, members of society banded together with like minded people and were willing to give their time and resources to meet a need that they felt critical to their community.  They understood that they couldn't count on their government to take action.  They showed their patriotism by investing of themselves.

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the critical roles that nonprofits play in our society.  Previous posts were on the roles of nonprofits as canaries signaling problems in public policy, as a safety net for basic needs and as an enabler for Americans to become engaged in their community.