Sioux Falls Business Journal

I had been healing from crippling muscle spasms in my lower back that, for about a year, left me unable to sit up or stand for more than an hour at a time. Eventually, I regained some semblances of normal daily life and needed a job.

I started working for a temporary-employment agency as my health allowed. But as I recovered, I looked for a regular full-time position while I waited for the next long-term job to show itself.

So I talked the executive director of the Food Bank, where my temp agency had assigned me, into letting me answer phones, file papers and mail thank-you letters to donors as a hired staff member.

It was there that I witnessed firsthand how impressive nonprofit organizations are.

Those two weeks at the Food Bank plus the months I worked there as a temp worker left an indelible impression on me about the vital role that nonprofit organizations play in our communities.

The Business Journal only occasionally reports on the work by the hundreds of nonprofit groups that operate in the Sioux Falls area, although these organizations employ thousands of workers and create an economic impact that ripples throughout the region. Along the way, they also affect the lives of those whom they serve.

There are two notable exceptions, however, to our reporting focus. Those are the city’s two hospital systems because in many ways they function like for-profit operations and, well, they are Sioux Falls’ largest employers.

However, there literally are hundreds of other nonprofits that operate on the periphery of the business world but whose connections are unmistakable and whose contributions are incalculable. Yet they rarely makes this paper’s headlines.

Still I think of their work even more so during this time of year when goodwill runs so high, and I’m amazed all over again by the missions that these organizations undertake.

For the most part, those of us who work for, or run, for-profit companies largely are driven by profits.

Yes, we have customers who can fire us at any given moment if our products or services don’t meet expectations.

But for most of us, it’s no mystery where the term “the bottom line” originated. We know well the motivation to make money because it’s ingrained into our psyches.

Nonprofits, however, are different. Today’s nonprofit organizations use many of the same operating procedures as for-profit companies do, but their missions are all about people. Building people. Patching up people when they’re wounded. Equipping them when they’re in transition.

All with the goal of sending these newly empowered people back into mainstream society again where they, with fingers crossed, will flourish.

It’s an amazing feat, to say the least. One to which every for-profit organization is indebted. And at least one gainfully employed business editor, too.

Along with a check in the mail, these organizations deserve at least this one thing during this season: a heart-felt thank you.