Jose Carillo's English Forum

English Grammar and Usage Problems => Badly Written, Badly Spoken => Topic started by: Miss Mae on March 08, 2017, 12:11:12 PM

Title: Not-for-profit or non-profit?
Post by: Miss Mae on March 08, 2017, 12:11:12 PM

Today's the first time I've read about an organization described as not-for-profit. Is that more appropriate than nonprofit?

Title: Re: Not-for-profit or non-profit?
Post by: Joe Carillo on March 09, 2017, 06:07:38 AM

They mean exactly the same, which is that the entity is "not conducted or maintained for the purpose of making a profit." The usage simply depends on the choice of the organization on how to describe itself. (By the way, the prevailing usage knocks off the hyphen from "non-profit"--nonprofit.)

Title: Re: Not-for-profit or non-profit?
Post by: Miss Mae on March 09, 2017, 10:32:20 AM

Uh, okay.

Thank you!