Someone pointed out to me recently that the German word for non-profit, gemeinnützig, is purely positive. It translates, when broken down, into commonly-useful, or common-profit.
I never thought about the fact that we in the U.S. define non-profit organizations by what they’re not doing–making profit–rather than by what they are doing for the public good. Even in the legal world, we use a Latin term (pro bono) to describe such work. I don’t think people think less of non-profit organizations for this reason, but who knows–maybe there is an impact on the subconscious level.
