Not For Profit

There exist all kinds of companies in the world who are not profitable, but those fat cash losses weren’t their intention. A not for profit is a charity or some kind of company that just tries to give back something to the community.

The March of Dimes is a famous not for profit. St. Jude’s hospital is another, and so is The Red Cross. Why is this NFP status even a Thing? Well, when something is a charity, it gets special legal status, such that money it receives can usually be tax-deductible contributions from those donating.

Say you donated money to Apple (and not by giving them money to buy the latest iPhone). Yeah...that wouldn’t really serve society. It’d be a nice thing to do for AAPL shareholders. But it wouldn’t really address the do-gooder-ness of the charity system we’ve developed in the United States. See: 501c-3.

So if you’re a charity and you want people to donate money to you, then…um, that’s good. We need more people like you in the world. Feel free to hit up some hedge fund managers for their gainful dough. We don’t really need more people like them in the world. Though we’re happy to take their money.