Slate Examines What the “Nonprofit Industrial Complex” has “Metastasized” Into

If there is power in the metaphors one chooses-and there is-perhaps there’s cause for the nonprofit sector, or at least its largest organizations, to worry about the approach taken at Slate’s Slate 90 project. The premise of the series is reasonable: Is the public getting what it pays for through its tax exemptions, particularly when it comes to some of the sector’s bigger participants? But the use of two vivid metaphors having to do with cancerous growths and extractive business creates an overarching assumption that may be a bit excessive.
Slate is a left-leaning online magazine that’s recently become part of the Washington Post’s portfolio, and so is owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. The Slate 90 is an attempt by the website to get a picture of what the “nonprofit industrial complex” has “metastasized” into. The list was created to see whether there is sufficient return on the investment that we citizens make in the nonprofit sector.
The Slate 90 covers nine categories-among them Health; Education; Environment & Animals; Human Services; and Arts, Culture, and Humanities-and lists the 10 largest nonprofits in each in terms of their annual revenue. Some of the numbers and, to be frank, some of the organizations listed-do make the reader lean back a bit in shock.