Perhaps it's just the end-of-summer doldrums where there's little "real news" but from what I'm reading, stories about nothing are rising up. For instance, The Philadelphia Inquirer has been exploring a story about a nonprofit subsidiary of the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Here's a blurb:
This week, Asia Coney, who makes six figures, will wake up in her Philadelphia Housing Authority-owned home, pile into her PHA-owned 2000 Ford Expedition, and head to the swank Sheraton at 17th and Race, to run an empowerment conference to help poor families get off the public dime.
Coney makes at least $101,170 as head of Tenant Support Services, Inc. (TSSI), a nonprofit subsidiary under contract with PHA to provide tenant services.
Other than the possibly "offensive" reality that Ms. Coney makes six figures and has significantly subsidized rent and this consequently makes some people grumpy, I'm not really getting the "so what" of the story. This story is like this past Sunday's story from the New York Times about a possible lack of transparency at the Social Innovation Fund and "questionable" awards. Both stories are just that: stories trying to make something of not that much rather than focusing on nonprofit successes and results. Not of course that there isn't really some story here nor that the issues shouldn't be explored nor that the reporters covering these items aren't generally very good at exposing some real issues when they exist.
In my opinion, these types of stories really don't do much for anyone, and particularly the nonprofit sector. More importantly, nonprofits must not be doing that great of a job giving these same reporters an opportunity to focus on outcomes - not quirky travails. We can do better.