My first job out of university was at a not-for-profit, and it is a surprisingly cut-throat sector.
We had two main competitors in our space, and while the ultimate goal for everyone including our competitors was to do a common good, we were competing for a limited pool of donation dollars.
Because of that, sharing any intellectual property that made us better at what we did (i.e., raise more money, hire more staff, fund more initiatives) could result in a competitor using that same IP to put us out of business.
I get that in the big picture, it's not the way things should be done, but in the small picture, you're usually talking about individuals with their own agendas.
We had two main competitors in our space, and while the ultimate goal for everyone including our competitors was to do a common good, we were competing for a limited pool of donation dollars.
Because of that, sharing any intellectual property that made us better at what we did (i.e., raise more money, hire more staff, fund more initiatives) could result in a competitor using that same IP to put us out of business.
I get that in the big picture, it's not the way things should be done, but in the small picture, you're usually talking about individuals with their own agendas.