Happy birthday Frio... your first b-day as a newly minted jock pup. 😈

I'm gonna enjoy having two hockey jocks in the family. Huff.

The good news is, you can hire fractionally for all the expertise needed to ensure some compensation for that passion.

Passion projects and running a business are entirely different things. I for one don't want cons of any kind to become soulless businesses. So there's a balance between passion and the proper business administration that's needed to ensure that passion is rewarded fairly.

All in all, yes, businesses are hard to run. The work organizers do is amazing. They need more compensation. The good news is that larger cons have more ability to afford management and meet compliance, and that's needed whether it's a non-profit or a for-profit organization. The fix is management.

Tax compliance is an equally unforgiving and fickle thing. You would need a CFO/controller in a for-profit as well to ensure no penalties for improper filing/payments. You'd then also lose non-profit rates from hotels, sales tax savings on materials, and other ancillary benefits.

I'll submit that many people misunderstand what a non-profit is and often think they are difficult to run. But the issues you're talking about are business issues not structural or mission issues. If the org can't run itself as a non-profit then it can't as a for-profit either.

All of this can be managed by a fractional CFO or consultant/controller that would cost very little to employ.

There's honestly nothing to get around. The financial management for a non-profit & a for-profit is identical. The only thing that's different is what happens to excess funds.

All in all, the benefits of the non-profit structure should outweigh the challenges if it's all managed well.

Also, it's important to know, to be a charitable non-profit you need not spend all surplus on your charitable mission. You can have reserves, pay for special projects, and even offer employees bonuses so long as they are fair market value bonuses as part of total compensation.

For instance, many Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance companies are structured as nonprofits. In those cases, any surplus post pay and expenses is reinvested in the business or held in reserve. They can and do pay their executives and employees at levels comparable to leaders of for-profit insurers.

Just wanna chime in here as I manage the business and matters of contract law for a non-profit. There are zero restrictions on non-profits paying fair market wages for work. This means a President of a non-profit (large or small) with significant revenue can make a significant salary.