Take Care with Acronyms and Jargon (Also a Job Offering)
By Larry Kilman
Friday, 13 January 2017
Pretentious language is the bane of the non-profit world. The use of jargon and acronyms that nobody but insiders understand is exclusionary and reduces your community to a club.
So try to avoid it.
Perhaps the worst offender are those NGOs and non-profits that encourage new technology start-ups.
You would think that an NGO that provides resources and counseling for runaway children would be praised and respected for this sad but necessary work. But in Egypt, a group doing just that faces prosecution.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is at the forefront of responses to the current refugee crisis, but needless to say it can’t do all the work by itself.
Even Saudi Arabia has recognized the place of NGOs (or private associations) in society, but that recognition is evidently too late for Mohammad al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi, who have been charged with “forming an unlicensed organization”, according to Human Rights Watch.
By Larry Kilman
