This introductory zine explains the “non-profit industrial complex” and how it functions to limit radical movements. It draws heavily on the book “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex” and presents examples of this works on an international and national level. This particular zine isn’t the most nuanced argument, but it’s a helpful introduction to the topic and asks important questions about the institutionalization of social struggles.

The non-profit industrial complex (or the NPIC) is a system of relationships between, the State (or local and federal governments), the owning classes, foundations, and non-profit/NGO social service & social justice organizations that results in the surveillance, control, derailment, and everyday management of political movements. The state uses non-profits to: Monitor and control social justice movements; Divert public monies into private hands through foundations; Manage and control dissent in order to make the world safe for capitalism; Redirect activist energies into career-based modes of organizing instead of mass-based organizing capable of actually transforming society; Allow corporations to mask their exploitative and colonial work practices through "philanthropic" work; Encourage social movements to model themselves after capitalist structures rather than to challenge them.