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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

People instantly think 'non-profit' means 'virtuous charity', but first of all not all charities are doing things you or anyone else would agree are genuinely virtuous, and secondly non-profits aren't necessarily working on any kind of 'charity' as a reasonable person would understand it. People should remember - 'non-profit' is an administrative status, not a comment on the value of what they're doing or their motivations for doing it.

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And third, nonprofit doesn't mean you don't make money. Ikea is a nonprofit. A job at a nonprofit, thus, is a job for any other entity.

Right - someone at the Wellcome Trust (respected UK genuine medical research charity) earned £3.2 million last year.

https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-pay-study-2019-highest...

Now not saying they aren't worth it - this person probably bought more money in than that so of course it's obviously worth it on the bottom line, and everyone's entitled to earn as much as they can negotiate, it's nobody's business but their own and the people paying them.

But don't hear 'non-profit' and think 'impoverished monk working on noble goals' as one or both may not be the case.

In Northern VA there are whole neighborhoods with huge houses and nice cars. I know a guy who lived there. I asked where all these people worked, thinking Verizon, AOL or similar. He said pretty much all worked for nonprofits. There is great money in non-profit leadership. A lot of hospitals also are non-profit and pay huge salaries to their management.

“Nonprofit” is a statement about ownership, not labor.

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