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Week 5: Kai Chen

7/10/2022

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I was often skeptical of the works that nonprofit do given some of the most lucrative companies and institutions in the United States labeled themselves as such. The College Board, given its monopoly in access to higher education, gained more profits than it needed to sustain itself by exploiting students, even though it is a so-called non-profit.  I also can not think of a single name-school that is not a non-profit, even though they hoard a significant amount of wealth in their endowment rather than investing it in their students or practice any tuition reliefs.  

I appreciate having the exposure to ProsperUs, I believe it does fit every criteria of a non-profit, and learn about their revenue models.  Most of ProsperUs’ funding comes from grants instead of from its own service.  For their microlending program, they charge a 7% interest in their loan package, but that money is then invested back on the pool of funding for prospective micro-lending applicants.  Most of the organizations in Green Garage are start-up/nonprofits, and I could see their dedication to social deeds.  I learned about some benefits of registering as a non-profit versus a for profit.  I also learned about working at a non-profit from Suzie, who is passionate about entering the field of non-profit and sees herself working at one full-time.  She told me that quite a lot of employees at non-profits were paid minimally, so they usually needed to work two full time jobs in order to make ends meet.  

I am working at a bank next year, and everyone’s function and responsibility is clear thanks to its scale. You have those who invest, trade, sell, research, recruit, etc.  So I would perform only the trading function for the bank. However, given that most nonprofits are smaller in scale, especially those that just started, you have to be flexible with the work that you are assigned to. Certainly, specialization creates efficiency, however, we have so few employees, specialization would not be possible. So sometimes, even the most senior person at a non-profit still needs to perform the due diligence and do the prep work.  And it is with these versatility and everyone’s “I could contribute to this” mindset, that I think help nonprofit foster the less intense work atmosphere.

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