Many people dislike the word “nonprofit” — after all, why should groups describe themselves by what they are not? But coming up with an alternative is a challenge.

Robert K. Ross, president of the California Endowment, a health foundation in Los Angeles, says he’s got just the word: “delta,” the Greek letter that signifies change. So, no more talk about the “nonprofit sector,” he said at the closing session of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

It’s now the “delta sector.”

“We need to be more intentionally about change and transformation,” he said. “Business as usual is leaving too many families broken and too many families and folks with hopelessness and despair.”

Mr. Ross’s suggestion quickly caught on during the panel discussion. “Where would you like to see social innovation in the delta sector at the end of two Obama terms?” David Gergen, a political commentator and professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School, the panel moderator, asked Sonal Shah, head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.

Ms. Shah’s response: “We would be integrated into every discussion that takes place with every cabinet secretary. In every discussion [people would ask], ‘What’s the delta sector doing?’”

With White House endorsement of the new name, should we consider it official?