What's in a name?

What do a Canadian backpacker traveling abroad and the non-profit sector have in common? Besides sharing the deserving reputation as being general do-gooders, they both spend a lot of time identifying themselves in terms of what they aren't. 

Canadian backpacker - Not American. Being mistaken for an American while trekking through Europe, well that's a far greater concern than losing your Eurorail pass while in an Amsterdam-induced altered state of mind. 

Like the Canadian traveller sporting a maple leaf on his backpack, the sector is defensive - proclaiming its definite state of (not)being right up front with the bland and uninspired non-profit moniker. While there are a few variations on the theme (including voluntary, not-for-profit, third-sector and other permutations) they are all diametric in nature - standing in opposition of something else.  

Here's my theory: Instead of trying to reconcile the many areas of activity that make up the sector under one collective descriptor, we settled on non-profit as the proverbial "other" category to catch everything from national environmental organizations to local community health clinics.  

While it's often easier to define ourselves in terms of what we're not, it's not as simple as black or white anymore. Government services are delivered by community organizations. Social enterprises are increasingly blurring the line between the for-profit and non-profit spheres, turning a profit while paying more than just lip-service to social responsibility. Today, non-profits are running businesses and businesses are running non-profits. 

So what's the alternative?

It seems that trying to pick a better term to describe the sector collectively is no easy task. Given the great variety of organizations, missions and areas of activity that currently fit in the "non-profit" category, are alternative descriptors like the social sector or the community sector good enough? Could they better convey the meaning of the sector's work to our clients, funders and stakeholders? Can one word really define who we are and what we do? 

Perhaps we need to carry that maple leaf flag with us for a little while longer...