“The Nonprofit world is awash in talk of impact. Simply add it before the word metric, or story and you have the content of most board presentations and donor pitches. But impact means a violent action.

Is that what nonprofits do? Can our actions in a community be reduced to a display of raw power? None of us would say that is the case, yet the language of impact conveys another story. It undermines our intent.

Nonprofits exist to influence change, not to violently cause it. Influence is built by trust rooted in understanding. These characteristics of lasting change are difficult to achieve; they are hard to measure and challenging to convey to donors. But when we slip into impact language we are letting go of our distinctive way of operating in the world.”