There is no real difference in meaning between nonprofit and not-for-profit. Both can be used to describe organizations that do not redistribute surplus funds to owners or shareholders. Nonprofit is about twice as common in U.S. publications, but not-for-profit is gaining ground because it more accurately reflects how these organizations work. Most nonprofit/not-for-profit organizations do make profits. It’s just that the profits are reinvested into company operations.
The hyphenated non-profit is more common than both nonprofit and not-for-profit in publications from outside the U.S.
Examples
Because nonprofit is more often used in legal codes and official documents, it’s still preferred by most major U.S. publications—for example:
Mr. Driver still keeps one foot in his old world through Arts in the Armed Forces, a nonprofit organization that performs monologues and music for military personnel and their families. [NY Times]
Small towns and nonprofit groups warn they face higher borrowing costs because Congress failed to renew cheap incentives that encourage the purchase of their tax-exempt bonds. [Wall Street Journal]
Hall-Porter started In God’s Loving Hands in 2005, and the organization became a registered nonprofit in 2006. [Washington Post]
But a growing number of organizations self-identify as not-for-profit and use this phrasal adjective in their own literature, and this term naturally finds its way into news sources—for example:
I’ve been wondering for a couple of years whether someone would bring Los Angeles the kind of not-for-profit news website that has popped up in cities like San Diego, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Austin and Chicago. [LA Times]
The not-for-profit’s budget is more than $200,000 and it keeps a reserve fund. [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
And these non-U.S. publications prefer the hyphenated non-profit:
Some insist a business must be non-profit to count as a social enterprise. [Financial Times]
Such transformation of the non-profit sector has attracted little public debate. [Sydney Morning Herald]
And Palooka’s Boxing Club is a non-profit gym that focuses on helping kids at risk. [Globe and Mail]
