Vu Le

So, you don’t think you directly benefit from nonprofits—in which Vu goes on an awesome rant making the case that everyone benefits from the work of nonprofits. To quote one of his best bits: “Just because you can’t hold or see something does not mean you do not benefit from it. All of us benefit more from nonprofits’ work than we’ll ever know. If you feel safe walking down the street, it’s probably because there are nonprofits working on neighborhood safety and providing services to those who need help. If you appreciate all the free art and music all around you, it’s probably because there are nonprofits supporting kick-ass artists and musicians in the community.”  What provoked the rant? His observation  that “this philosophy of “we don’t benefit directly from the work of nonprofits” seems to be prevalent in our society, and it’s been leading to no-good, very-bad things like restricted funding and fear of overhead and unwillingness to pay for nonprofit professionals’ salaries.” I agree, and add that this attitude seems to be spreading. We can’t settle for documenting direct impact (which is hard enough). Nonprofits as a sector, including museums, need to show we make the world a better place even for people who never visit museums.