I've actually been thinking about this recently.

Every dating app is incentivized to be corrupt in some way, and just not just in the storing/selling data.

What many people don't realize is that for many people, they don't really "work" until you start to pay.

Then once you do, they are incentivized to keep you on as long as they can (I've actually seen the profiles in my feed change after paying them to be 90% people outside my area/preferences/etc).

I'm not exactly sure how a non-profit one could work, however, aligning the interests of the app with the people using it would be a pretty huge step.

The problem isnt monetization per se its all the dark patterns that emerge to keep people there and paying, no?

From what I understand few of those apps, especially not Match Group's are actually about well, matching interests or compatibility. Just the swipe olympics and ranking games that go with.

Its to the point I've heard a saying, that while I forgot the proper term basically alluded to the pin at the bottom of the haystack. That is to say to swipe left on every 'high ranking' guy just to finally find someone thats actually interesting and not just what the algo thinks is attractive.

Non-profit is not the same as not monetized. Somehow you will have to pay for the infrastructure running the app. If it's ads, you likely wouldn't have a large enough audience to get enough impressions. If it's subscriptions, how is that any different from other paid dating apps? I'm actually working on a dating app at the moment and it is currently not monetized:

  iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nectar-dating-by-jubilee/id6476018063
  Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jubilee.nectarmobile