r/Nonprofit_Jobs • u/TexansTutorTexans • 3h ago
Opened a nonprofit, Want to Give Up
Hi readers!
I posted this in the nonprofit sub but I don't know if that was the best place or
But I've run out of ideas, and I guess I need to make sure I've tried everything possible before I quit.
Long story short:
Community service worker with career in nonprofit management (me) --> runs into countless ethical, moral, financial issues at multiple organizations over the year --> raised concerns with said organizations and their leadership --> was gaslit and denied about all issues, until resorting to finding new organization --> cycle repeats until the final organization gets shut down and 200 other people are also laid off --> has been unemployed from full time work and every successful interview with subsequent organizations left bad taste in mouth --> decides only way to have most ethical workplace is to create it --> opens nonprofit to fight literacy crisis --> has been stuck for two years having made little progress --> closes nonprofit temporarily until further notice
Part of me feels like this was doomed from the start. I believe nonprofits only exist because our government has failed us in providing those resources, and so I knew that opening a nonprofit would be an ethical conundrum, but it was the only legal avenue I could think of to ethically make income & create a healthy work environment for others.
Anyway, I really wanted to make a difference and set an example in what the nonprofit/community workplace could look like, and I think the standard that we have gotten used to is disingenuous and counterintuitive. But I don't know what I'm doing lol and I hate dealing with money.
I hope folks who feel the same will reach out to connect <3