Adam Hinds

For years, I’ve written across different formats and through different outlets. One of my favorites has always been The Chaos Section. I enjoy the freedom that writing brings. But I’ve always lacked focus.

That changes now.

A Decade in the Nonprofit World

I’ve spent the past ten years working in and around nonprofit organizations, and I genuinely love them. I love the mission-driven people who pour themselves into this work. Not every organization is created equal, and some are certainly more transparent and effective than others. But in my experience, the organizations I’ve supported have consistently been led by people who carry the mission in their hearts. That kind of internal motivation is rare, and it’s contagious.

The nonprofit sector is also enormous. Nonprofits employ more than 12 million American workers, and the range of work they do spans education, healthcare, disaster relief, housing, food security, and nearly every other dimension of human need. These organizations have a long-standing tradition of propelling social movements in American history, from the abolition of slavery to women’s suffrage to more recent community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not a small thing. 

There is a persistent frustration embedded in nonprofit work, and it would be dishonest not to name it directly: the pay gap.

By its very nature, the mission-first environment of a nonprofit yields lower salaries, at least below the executive level. Private-sector management occupations pay roughly 30 percent more than comparable nonprofit roles. In small nonprofit organizations, the median private-sector CEO salary was nearly two-thirds higher than at nonprofits of similar size.

For people drawn to this work by a sense of purpose, that gap is often accepted as part of the deal. But it shouldn’t be, and the field increasingly knows it. Decades of gradually narrowing wage gaps between nonprofits and private and government employers have come as the nonprofit sector’s size, market share, and economic clout have increased. There is still significant ground to cover. 

I’ve also worked in and around government, spending much of my career operating in and around the military. And while there are genuine exceptions, the pattern I’ve observed too often in civilian government work is one of comfortable inertia. A kind of entitled, half-hearted apathy where doing the bare minimum becomes the unspoken standard. The incentives are structured around tenure and process rather than results and impact.

This is not merely anecdotal. Common characteristics of inefficient bureaucracies include being costly and ineffective, slow to act, and self-serving, with inefficiencies often amplified by civil service laws and personnel cap limitations that restrict leadership’s ability to shape organizations. In its 2025 review, the Government Accountability Office identified 38 federal programs as highly susceptible to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. That figure has fluctuated over the decades, but has never reached zero. That should tell us something. 

Government has no place in social services.

Programs like medical care, insurance, housing assistance, and related social services do not belong under the purview of any government entity. They should belong to the nonprofit sector. Unlike the government, nonprofit organizations have the flexibility to respond quickly to emerging issues, pilot innovative solutions, and cater to specific local or niche needs. They are also better able to experiment with new approaches and respond quickly to changes in the environment. 

The evidence bears this out. Consider Direct Relief, one of the most efficient large-scale humanitarian organizations in the world. During COVID-19, Direct Relief delivered more than 82 million units of PPE, 173 million defined daily doses of vital medicines, and 36,000 pieces of diagnostic and intensive care equipment to partner organizations fighting COVID-19 worldwide, reaching organizations in 55 U.S. states and territories and 100 countries. No government agency matched that speed or scale of targeted deployment. 

Then there is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, perhaps the most striking example of what a well-funded nonprofit can accomplish. St. Jude has helped raise the overall childhood cancer survival rate in the United States from 20% to 80% since its establishment in 1962. In fiscal year 2021, St. Jude received $2 billion in donations, with daily operating costs averaging $1.7 million, and patients are never charged for their care. Eighty-two cents of every dollar received goes directly to support treatment, research, and future needs. That kind of efficiency and mission clarity is simply not achievable inside a government bureaucracy. 

When nonprofits face challenges, they are often the result of government-created friction rather than organizational failure. A national Urban Institute survey found that nonprofits reporting problems with government contracts, such as late payments, contracts not covering the full cost of service, and complex reporting requirements, were more likely to freeze or reduce employee salaries, lay off employees, and draw down on their reserves. The bureaucracy reaches into the nonprofit sector too, and when it does, it slows everything down. 

Charitable giving also rises naturally to meet real need. During COVID-19, giving increased in 78 percent of counties that experienced the greatest threat from the pandemic, particularly to human services charities that helped mitigate the pandemic’s effects. People, when given the choice, direct resources where they can see the impact. That is the market working in favor of human welfare. 

Where I Come In

My focus, moving forward, is to help nonprofits in every capacity available to me.

That starts here, with a renewed commitment to writing about, discussing, and advocating for better ways to support and strengthen nonprofit and community-focused organizations. Everything I produce from this point forward will serve one purpose: supporting the organizations that help others.

Some of that support will take the form of board membership and organizational leadership. My ongoing work with Scouting America is a good example of what community-rooted involvement looks like in practice. In 2023, Scouting America served more than one million youth and delivered over 7.1 million hours of service to the country. Since its founding in 1910, roughly 130 million Americans have participated in its programs, served by more than 400,000 adult volunteers. That is the quiet, sustained power of a nonprofit operating at scale. 

But I want most of my work to focus on consulting, helping organizations that are doing meaningful work put the pieces together more effectively. Whether that means strategic planning, fundraising infrastructure, board development, or communications, the need is consistent and urgent across the sector.

The content I create, through writing, podcasts, and eventually video, will all carry this same focus. I hope you’ll join me.

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Adam Hinds is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Operations Specialist with 22 years of active and reserve service, and a current government contractor supporting the Joint Staff at the Department of Defense. He holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Management from Lipscomb University and a Bachelor of Science in International Relations from Middle Tennessee State University, and holds the Advanced Certified Nonprofit Professional (ACNP) credential. His nonprofit and civic work spans board service, operations consulting, and volunteer leadership. He currently serves on the boards of HELP, Inc. and Quality of Life, Inc., and works with organizations across the nonprofit, veteran, and civic sectors on governance, operational structure, and board accountability. Adam serves as District Commissioner for the Old Dominion District of Scouting America’s Colonial Virginia Council, Flotilla Commander for the Smithfield Flotilla of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, and holds national staff and leadership roles across several civic and fraternal organizations. He splits his time between Middle Tennessee and Hampton Roads, Virginia.