From social enterprise to strategy and planning principles, the non-profit sector is borrowing a lot from the business world. Unfortunately, one less positive adoption is what the Harvard Business Review dubs “bizspeak“: their list of words that should be blacklisted, from “actionable” to “win-win”, has definitely made it into our vocabulary. To be fair, non-profits have long had a language of their own, especially acronyms: moving to a new city or province, or connecting with an organization from a different area (youth services compared to health, for example) requires a mental recalibration and some awkward “What does that mean?” moments.
As a lighthearted end to the week, I’d like to hear from you – share some non-profitese that you find particularly aggravating, amusing, or both!