I came across a great blog post today, and decided to comment on it here.
I think the lines between nonprofit, business and government sectors have been blurred and it’s for the better. Who is to say the current models are ideal and don’t need to be challenged? I would be happy to see businesses adapt the “social enterprise” models and social responsibility behaviors more widely. I will also be happy to see nonprofits take some of those successful business models and run with it. Governments can definitely learn from both business and nonprofit models taking the best from both worlds.
I am hoping the core attitudes and values of people will galvanize this change: it is time to care. I think that’s why the lines between these sectors are blurring.
I’ve been hearing it mostly from younger people: You can do good for society in any sector—nonprofit, business, or government.
The lines between the sectors have blurred, I’m reminded, and it’s the IRS that forces incorporated entities into nonprofit and for-profit boxes. The social entrepreneur who starts a profit-making venture to support her charitable work shows us how to free our not-for-profit minds. “Blended” entities such as B-corporations promise double and even triple bottom lines. If you’re hip to the jive, you avoid using words like “nonprofit” altogether.
Am I imagining this or do I sometimes detect a bit of a sneer in all this sector agnosticism?
Belittlements aside, the view that nonprofit designation is largely a matter of IRS convention—or worse, a failure of entrepreneurial imagination—appears to be gaining currency.
I understand the frustration some people feel with the normal course of business at many not-for-profits. But our sector agnosticism overlooks an uncomfortable truth: there are important social goods nobody really wants to pay for. If it really were possible for a business-minded individual to turn a hefty profit by providing health care to the penniless, for example, it would have happened long ago.
R U a philanthrocapitalist? If you are, I’ll eat my shoe if you can convince a hundred investors to buy stock in a company that promises to make a killing by helping returning prisoners reintegrate into their communities.
To read the rest of this brilliant post go to Hall Talk: Sector Agnosticism
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