Over the years my opinion of non-profits has become less, shall we say, “charitable”; society has a tendency to glorify non-profits because they “don’t have shareholders” but, in reality, a lot of non-profits give peanuts to those at the bottom (with some even working for free) while executives get far more than a living salary. And whether you’re an educational institution, an insurance provider, or an NGO, being an executive comes with lots of perks like travel, entertainment, lavish offices, etc. So while “no shareholders” is often a selling point for supporting a non-profit, there are still people getting an oversized benefit out of non-profits, who in some disturbing cases are the founders and their family members.
If I wanted to donate a large amount of money to a non-profit, I would structure it as a zero-interest loan, and would just keep deferring the repayment of the loan as long as the org stays true to its mission, compensates executives in reasonable proportion to regular employees, etc. Brian Acton (who co-founded WhatsApp, and later left Facebook) is supporting the Signal Foundation with tens of millions in deferrable, interest-free loans. I think it’s absolutely genius, and wish more people would follow his example.
If I wanted to donate a large amount of money to a non-profit, I would structure it as a zero-interest loan, and would just keep deferring the repayment of the loan as long as the org stays true to its mission, compensates executives in reasonable proportion to regular employees, etc. Brian Acton (who co-founded WhatsApp, and later left Facebook) is supporting the Signal Foundation with tens of millions in deferrable, interest-free loans. I think it’s absolutely genius, and wish more people would follow his example.