Talk:Nonprofit Terminology

Subpages Meltdown

When I try to install the horizontal subpages format {{subpages9}} the Request for Approval template and all sorts of other screwy things appear. Roger Lohmann 20:41, 3 September 2007 (CDT)

I just filled in the metadata page for this article. The subpages template is dependant on that page to function correctly. Chris Day (talk) 03:08, 4 September 2007 (CDT)

Redirects

Is there a reason this page title is so long and we just don't have redirects all pointing to one page? --Robert W King 18:01, 13 November 2007 (CST)

Problems

We have a bit of a mess here. I have been developing what was started under the heading of voluntary organisation/organization, not knowing about these other headings (with different spellings/hyphenations) and varying explanations. As I don't want to appear presumptuous, I suggest that someone needs to look at the article on voluntary organisation which I developed, and sort out either that or the connecting articles. Incidentally, as someone convinced of the value of voluntary organisations, I do not subscribe to the negative view implied in the term non(-)profit - though somewhere or other I have quoted the management guru Peter Drucker who used the term non-profit (with a hyphen). There is something much more positive, which I have tried to convey --Martin Wyatt 21:29, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Martin, not problems; opportunities! ;-) I'll take a look at this, but CZ has some pretty straightforward procedures for handling such matters. To insert a hyphen in nonprofit on the strength of a thirty year old book by Drucker would, indeed, be presumptuous, however. There are more than a thousand researchers working in this area today, and the consensus position is "nonprofit" (no hyphens; not non-profit, and definitely not not-for-profit although dissidents still hold out for both). Such issues were the original rationale for this page. As authority for the non-hyphenated nonprofit, I call your attention to the two leading journals in the field: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and Nonprofit Management and Leadership, one of the two leading newspapers, The Nonprofit Times, the leading research association, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), and a leading practitioner quarterly, The Nonprofit Quarterly. Not a hyphen among them. Drucker stated his preference thirty years ago, but he was overruled, I'm afraid. ;-)

The S or Z issue in the spelling of organizations is more clearly a straightforwardly national issue, but fairly easily resolved: Since I (a U.S. citizen) began most of the entries in this area, I elected the U.S. spelling, organization with a Z, and U.S. spelling is indicated on the metadata pages. I also did the definition for V.O. (with a Z). Hence, voluntary organization. You appear to have begun the Voluntary organisation page with British spelling, which is fine, as long as that is indicated on the Metadata page. Please continue with that and I will add what I can to the article using the same spelling. Meanwhile, a couple of additional simple fixes are in order to avert any confusion (and consistent with longstanding CZ guidelines): A few redirects with the opposite spellings would be the preferred solution for most of this, I would think. That way if someone does a search using either the divergent spelling or hyphenation, they will automatically be directed to the right page. If you could keep a running list, below of the terms where hyphenation and spelling are issues, I will see to making the necessary arrangements.

Also, the hyphen issue is, as I recall, already mentioned on this page, and if the spelling issue isn't, that would be a fair topic to add.

By the way, I look forward to your work on this article. It's nice to have some company on this topic!

Roger A. Lohmann 22:01, 4 May 2013 (UTC)