Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
You're point has some serious potential as I may likely agree with it as you sound like you have some experience here. I do not. Would you care to expand on some of this, I would like to know.
I have worked for government and I know that having a budget that does not get watched will absolutely assure waste. I am more sure of this point than anything else in the world.
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I can't speak for all types of non-profits, but I did work in that sector for five years.
My comments about Volunteer Alberta and Canada Volunteerism Initiative (CVI) have to do with the fact that I really never bought into their concepts of "promoting volunteerism", "building capacity", etc. Here is a link to the types of projects funded through the CVI :
http://www.volunteer.ca/volcan/eng/c...t-projects.php
As I stated before, I am with the government on the above issue, as much as I may dislike them. Chris Rock said it best:
Quote:
"Anyone who makes up their mind before they hear the issue is a f*****g fool. Everybody, nah, nah, nah, everybody is so busy wanting to be down with a gang! I'm a conservative! I'm a liberal! I'm a conservative! It's bull***t!
Be a f*****g person. Listen. Let it swirl around your head. Then form your opinion.
No normal decent person is one thing. OK!?! I got some s**t I'm conservative about, I got some s**t I'm liberal about. Crime - I'm conservative. Prostitution - liberal."
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The "poorly run" comment has a lot to do with my personal experience.
Here are a few experience-based examples of what I think is wrong with
some non-profit agencies:
-A program budget outlined in the funding contract quotes a certain amount of money for the office space rent. My budget covered exactly the square footage of my office. I shared the office, however, with four people from two other programs - one funded by the province and one federal program. My program was funded by the City of Calgary.
- A person who barely uses the Internet, email and MS Word has a perfectly usable beige Pentium 3 computer. She throws a tantrum after a colleague of hers gets a black, lower-end Dell until her manager approves a purchase of a sexier, black box for her. Only her new computer ends up costing over $2000 as the manager has no clue about IT. The PIII gets donated to a "needy" acquaintance as the agency can't sell anything.
-Speaking of computers... Two smaller departments get brand new dual-core machines with 4GB of memory and 19-inch flat panel monitors. They have all of ... ONE person who even knows what that means.
-A consultant gets paid to help with the strategic planning process. The cost not counting staff hours lost - $20,000. The consultant, of course, is a housewife running her own "business". We spend a day in Kananaskis playing dumb, feel-good games.
There are many more stories, but it's Sunday. I can't think about work.
I know these things are also happening in the corporate sector, but most of the time, businesses are not playing with the public money.