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Nonprofit vs. For-Profit
We’re going to use this space to grapple with nonprofit vs. for-profit scenarios – specifically, some of the scenarios similar to the ones I’ve experienced while building America Learns. So if you’re...
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Creating a Hybrid For-Profit / Non-Profit Social Enterprise Structure
11:10am May 31, 2005 PST Binary Decision: For-profit or Non-profit? As social entrepreneurs view the landscape of potential funding available to them they inevitably begin to assess their options and...
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Nonprofits of the Future: NGOs in 2016
Can you envision the nonprofit of 2016? How will advances in technology make the role and work of nonprofits and NGOs different? Join the discussion and participate in a unique citizen journalism...
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Profit for a Purpose
Provocative as it may sound, many nonprofits successfully leverage monies received from their revenue-generating initiatives to enhance mission impact, increase their organization’s performance and...
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Social Franchise: Is It For You?
Social franchise uses the structure of a commercial franchise to achieve social goals. Is it for you? Under what circumstances would it be appropriate for a nonprofit to consider developing a social...
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Equity Investment in UK Social Enterprise - How??
kathcritchley - 02:21am Mar 30, 2006 PST CEO, Social Firms Scotland There will be much discussion and speculation over philanthrocapitalism, equity investment and shareholdings in global social...
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Should You Launch A Profit-Making Business?
NPOs starting businesses Non-profits often ask me whether they should start a profit-making business. My answer is: proceed with caution, and do so only if the business is closely related to your...
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How to Build a Social Enterprise, Part 2
How to Develop a Process and Organizational Culture that Efficiently and Effectively Examines Entrepreneurial Ideas How do organizations, large and small, new and experienced develop a culture that...
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Stop or Go: Is Social Enterprise Right for My Organization?
This workshop addresses such process segments as “Getting Ready,” “Defining the Way,” Assessing Readiness,” “Selecting an Enterprise Idea,” and “Conducting a Pre-feasibility Study.” Each theme will be...
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Social Fusion: Hybrid Capital and Sustainability
New leaders in social change are redefining the rules of public good. “Hybrid” models offer a new breed of innovation that unites profits and conscience. Social Fusion, a business incubator dedicated...
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Social Fusion: Going Corporate
A top set of innovators from social and corporate camps offer candid perspectives on tapping into the multinational reach of global corporations. On August 26th Social Fusion, a business incubator for...
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Cross-Sector Partnership
Globalization and the Poor, Part 2: Cross-sector Partnership This event is sponsored by WRI, in conjunction with their conference, “Eradicating Poverty through Profit”, December 12-14 in San...
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Benefiting from Social Entrepreneurship and Social Businesses in India
Article Summary (Full article available below) In spite of progress in several fields, the social and environmental conditions in India continue to be grim. Today about 300 million Indians are not able...
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Emerging Nonprofit / Business Partnerships in India
With Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel, Executive Director, Goodwill social work centre, Madurai, India. The need for cross-sector partnering between businesses and nonprofits for social development...
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Should your organization go "hybrid"?
A hybrid organization tightly integrates a non-profit (NPO) and a for-profit (FP) unit into one organization. See all Hybrid Model discussions and advice on Social Edge HERE. (updated August 2008) The...
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Choosing a Social Franchise: Pros and Cons
The well documented success of franchising is a strong attraction for would-be business owners. As the International Franchise Association touts, you are "in business for yourself but not by...
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Converting from Non-profit to For-profit Status
Should you consider changing your organization's status from non-profit to for-profit? This question has become a major policy issue in the health-care industry, as many hospitals are currently doing...
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Social Ventures in the Competitive Business World
Fellow social entrepreneurs may want to read this life-changing book, The Social Enterprise Sourcebook. Jerr Boschee (also profiled in our Peace Corps Entrepreneurs on The Edge series) has assembled a...
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Nonprofits / For-profits Partnerships
Non-profits and for-profits can achieve significant results together that are often impossible alone. And partnerships between the two can be smooth and mutually beneficial. Our experience has shown...
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Case Study: Gumball Capital
Help a group of Stanford students launch their microfinance social venture! Gumball Capital was started by a few Stanford students during Entrepreneurship Week, where we ran a grassroots campaign and...
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Productivity vs. creativity: Does the culture war impact social entrepreneurs?
There has been a very interesting topic coming up recently in the blogosphere, concerning the way that "six sigma" efficiency cultures are antithetical to highly creative thinking. The story unfolds in...
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The For-profit / Non-profit Hybrid Model
The For-profit/Non-profit Hybrid Model: Why and How? PharmAfrican, a Montreal-based privately owned biopharmaceutical company, was founded in 2006 to develop and commercialize health nutrition products...
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Radical Collaboration
The time for playing small and separate is over… We live in a crucible in which the forces of globalization, environmental degradation, poverty and emerging markets have driven companies, governments...
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Case Study: A Hybrid Model for PlayRugby
Finding the right Non Profit/For Profit model for a small but rapidly growing youth development program. Play Rugby was established in 2003 by National Rugby Team Member Mark Griffin. As a non-profit...
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Private Sector Development in Palestine
The recent Palestinian Investment Conference in Bethlehem marked the beginning of a new international initiative to stimulate private sector development in the West Bank. The event was very promising-...
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Models and what's missing
IBM Global's 2006 report (pdf version here), Business model innovation: the new route to competitive advantage included a striking graph illustrating the finding of IBM's financial analysts that...
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Maps, Mapping and What's Possible
You don't have to use Google Earth or have a GPS system in your car --or be a fan of Einstein or Edward Tufte -- to know that visual thinking is powerful, that we're moving into an age of networks and...
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Seeding Innovation
What does it mean to seed innovation –to help a community or a sector create new solutions? In the Ripple Effect project, seeding innovation means supporting motivated organizations to experiment,...
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The Social and Commercial Two-Step
Are dual structures the best way to do this dance? The desire to combine social and commercial in the pursuit of an outcome has led to creative ways to structure an enterprise—often known as a hybrid...
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Mission and Structure
Protecting Your Mission: The best legal structure This discussion board recently hosted a discussion about hybrid non-profit/for-profit structures (The Social and Commercial Two Step). Much of that...
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Intrapreneurship
I know, I know: This is a community about Social Entrepreneurship (check out my posts from the 2008 Skoll World Forum). But since joining a big tech company, I’ve also become smitten with Social...
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Mobile Transactions in Africa
The mobile phone has changed everything.I first worked in Zambia in 2005 with Engineers Without Borders, a Canadian volunteer organization. At the time, mobile phones were just becoming popular, but...
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Microfranchising
Nineteen year-old Stephen Mensah has a junior-high level of education but no major assets. He has lost any hope of attaining the additional education he has wanted for years. But all of that changed...
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Rethinking Partnerships
I think it is time for social entrepreneurs to rethink partnerships. I’m a huge fan of collaboration, but I am strongly opposed to gratuitous collaboration. Too often donors, executive directors and...
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The Impact Investing Wave
I attended the Skoll World Forum last week and had a realization. Yes, social entrepreneurs are working constantly to refine their business models, but right now, many are worried about very specific...
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Where does one start?
Every day it seems I am asked the same question: How did you start your social enterprise? What advice can you give to others who want to get something started? The question usually leaves me...
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Is the Social Economy built on air?
I am no stranger to controversy, and often welcome it, but as I set out to write this piece I greatly fear it will be mis-interpreted. Yet, I have a serious and profound concern that we in the social...
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Business Models for Social Impact
When Greg Dees and I started our blog over six months ago, it was to get feedback on some of the patterns and trends we had been seeing in our research on business models for social entrepreneurs. We...
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Last-Mile Distribution Models
What do solar lanterns in Africa, consumer goods in the Philippines, and village electrification systems in India have in common? They must meet the challenge of delivering products and services to...
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