Sure, there was a day when Birkenstocks and patchouli were the overwhelming symbols of the sector. Just a bunch of passionate people with big dreams about filling those proverbial gaps in society, operating outside traditional models of organizational structure and accepted definitions of hygiene. But those days are more or less over, and hopefully gone with it the stigma that we’re nothing more than a bunch of hippies. My friend and colleague, Alex, says that nonprofit work is about filling the gaps. She says that nonprofits meet the needs of people that government and private sectors fail to do. I believe that the sector always has been, and always will be, enlisted in the mission of filling the gaps. But how we respond to those gaps is evolving.