What if I told you ... that "nonprofit" actually means a business that makes profits, but never gives them to individuals, and instead reinvests them in crucial services for public benefit?

A nonprofit is a business — including nonprofits that make exhibitions. It must make more than it spends or it won’t survive. That leftover money is called profit. Then why do we call it nonprofit?

Nonprofits — like Harvard, the Smithsonian, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art — all have employees, bring in money, pay their bills, and provide things that people value (for example: exhibitions). So yes, a nonprofit is a business.

If you develop exhibitions, you probably work at, or for, a nonprofit. So it’s important to know what a nonprofit is. Quick: define nonprofit in words, quietly to yourself. What did you come up with?

Time, money and quality are the three basic factors in exhibition project delivery. Given standard time and standard money, we can deliver standard quality. What if we’re asked to deliver faster, or cheaper, or better than standard? When do we say no?