The Myth of "Nonprofit"

by rrusczyk, May 15, 2009, 8:36 PM

Brought to you by the College Board. (Thanks for the pointer, Dave.)

It's Friday afternoon, and I have too much to do before the weekend to give a full-throated rant about this, but you can skim the article above, which outlines the "gobstopping amounts of money" the College Board makes, and fill in the rant of your own about how people in the so-called non-profit world (including academia) look down on those of us who don't have the legal status of non-profit. (To be clear, I have no problem with people making money off of evaluation measures like the SAT and AP tests, though I wish they were better tests. I just have a problem with the nonprofit fiction. That said, I do think the "ReadiStep" is probably pure, unmitigated, cash-driven evil. Just made worse by all the smoke they blow about their pure intentions. OK, I guess I did have time for a little ranting.)

And it's not just the education world that plays this fiction. Don't get me started on the Red Cross...

College Board

economics

education

Comment

4 Comments

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.

This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.

Yepp - $\$[/dollar]86$ per AP test, so that accumulates to $\$[/dollar]258$ for this year alone for me.

My friend had 6 AP tests, and already maxed out his potential AP credits at WashU as of last week, meaning that no matter how he scored on his final APs (both Physics and Econ exams), he would not receive college credit (which is why he was told by his friends to draw enteraining pictures and smiley faces during the exam). That would have meant that he had 4 exams that were basically, useless. $\$[/dollar]344$ down the drain.

by n0vad3m0n, May 16, 2009, 2:27 PM

Report

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.

This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.

Over $\$[/dollar]$ 1000 for me. And I'm not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, the ones I took before this year, which are most of them, almost certainly played a significant part in getting me into college. On the other, I don't get any credit since I won't choose to leave early, and placement is fairly lax.

Also, I think this was essentially the motivation behind the ACT. The CollegeBoard was making hand over fist and so the ACT people released a (slightly easier

) test that didn't charge nearly as much money.

by tcs09, May 16, 2009, 7:10 PM

Report

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.

This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.

You can't generalize from the College Board to every non-profit ever. Fundamentally, they *should* serve a different purpose to society than that of for-profit corporations (and yes, the CB is an exception). My mom has been working in the nonprofit world for years, and I spend a lot of time volunteering, so I have a good amount of experience in this area. Many organizations struggle to survive, just as for-profits do (not including those like the College Board, which has an almost-monopoly, or the Red Cross, which has massive donation-solicitation ability).

by worthawholebean, May 18, 2009, 12:30 AM

Report

The post below has been deleted. Click to close.

This post has been deleted. Click here to see post.

OK, I'll be more specific -- I think most large non-profits are essentially isomorphic to for-profit institutions, with an extra dose of hypocrisy thrown in. There are some exceptions (as far as I can tell, Goodwill and the Salvation Army are very different from the Red Cross in this regard), but they're few.

I will add that I would include most large churches and a great many private universities along with the Red Cross and the College Board. If I were king for a day, I'd just axe the income tax dodge for all non-profits, including churches and universities. Obama's reduction of the tax deduction for donations of wealthy people is one of the few economic moves he's made that I agree with.

by rrusczyk, May 18, 2009, 4:10 PM