In the past  I never really thought about of non-profits. I thought that only for profits could drive lasting change. Now, as I spend more time working with these community based organizations, I’m realizing just how large of an impact a community organization can have.  But where did my misguided assumptions come from?

I never had much interaction with community organizations growing up, so the only examples I’ve had to go on were the ones that advertise on tv, the ones that make the news (such as Susan G. Komen cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood), and in a way the government. Of all of these influences, I think that my view of government has had the largest impact.

It’s possible that the distrust of government institutions has a negative impact on people’s trust in the more local institutions that are able to drive meaningful change. If this is the case, then the impact of government misconduct and gridlock has an exponentially larger–and negative–impact on society as a whole.

One way to test this idea would be to see if donations from individuals over time was more closely correlated with trust in government and other institutions than it is with the over-all health in the economy. I’m sure there are some other variables that would have to be taken into account, such as the fact that economic performance is probably tied to trust in government, but I think this could give a back of the envelope validation to the idea. 

*Photo from People-Press.org