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Working yourself out of business is not working Wednesday, January, 27, 2010
Great Non-Profits Deserve A Great Rating System Wednesday, December, 16, 2009
Missing the Mark: Why Business-Mindedness Cannot Solve the Problems of the Non-Profit Sector Tuesday, December, 8, 2009
Too Many Non-Profits? Tuesday, December, 1, 2009
The Poverty Business Tuesday, November, 17, 2009
Poor By Design Monday, November, 16, 2009
The Poverty Landscape Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
We Need Inforum Thursday, November, 5, 2009
Effective Social Investing Wednesday, November, 4, 2009
Social Services Cause Homelessness
Tuesday, December, 1, 2009
The Poverty Business
I created a bit of a stir the other day with a piece I wrote on my personal blog critiquing the work of a for-profit social enterprise called The Extraordinaries, a company that builds so-called "micro-volunteering" mobile phone applications. My post was picked up in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and sparked a conversation about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of micro-volunteering and even elicited this response from the founder of the company in question. My intention is not to rehash that debate here, but rather to step back and discuss what I believe is a disturbing trend in the social enterprise space- the cropping up of companies that cash in on a charitable façade, but provide no actual social value.
Our sector is abuzz right now with the promise of social enterprise, the idea that business models, practices, and techniques can be applied to the social sector. I myself have a lot of faith in the concept of social enterprise, running my own for-profit, double bottom line organization. Used effectively, business thinking and practices can be a valuable tool in our efforts to combat poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. But regardless of the tools or instruments one uses, fundamentally, our focus needs to be on social outcomes.
If a for-profit business model is the most efficient way for a particular poverty intervention to produce social value, then I'm all for it. The problem is not, as some have argued, that non-profits don't think enough like businesses. Instead, I argue the problem we have as a sector is not focusing enough on social outcomes. There is only value in adopting certain business techniques, like more effective marketing of social services, if those techniques help us improve social outcomes.
Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy and a Harvard Business School graduate sparked an intense debate a few weeks back by arguing that "looking misguidedly to the markets and 'business practice' as the answers" to the problems in our sector is wrong. Indeed, my concern with the direction that some have gone with an emphasis on business practices is that the goal of social outcomes is getting blurred.
As a sector, we benefit from effective organizations that use business or non-profit tactics to help improve the lives of those in need. But there is a clear line between using business to solve poverty, and being in the poverty business. The former is an important to addition to our industry, whereas the latter represents a disturbing trend I can only hope is a fad.
(Photo by Ben Heine)
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Taxing Our Way Out of Homelessness? Friday, November 21, 2008
A Third Wave Of Addressing Homelesness Monday, November 13, 2006
705 Missing Homeless People: Where Did They Go? Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Civil Overestimation Friday, January 30, 2009
Unemployment Numbers: I'm Worried...
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