Greg Dees
Thinking About Starting A Business? Read This First
Nonprofit leaders have long fantasized about creating businesses that generate earned income to fund their operations. The social entrepreneur’s bottom line is her missions. Making more money, only to fritter it away on ineffective or inefficient programs, is a failure, not a success. Because it is unrestricted, earned income provides no inherent check on the […]
Normative Foundations of Business
What is the appropriate role for business to play in a capitalist society? In analyzing responses to this question, this note distinguishes two separate dimensions. The first involves the distinctive objective of business as a social institution, considers the pros and cons of profit maximization as well as alternatives to profit maximization such as putting […]
Responding to Market Failures
This note broadly defines the concept of market failure and explores options for responding to it, paying particular attention to the role of business leaders in addressing market deficiencies Harvard Business Review, 1996 By Gregory J Dees Responding to Market Failures
The Social Enterprise Spectrum
By Gregory J Dees With the boundaries between philanthropy and commerce blurring, this note briefly gives nonprofit managers and social entrepreneurs a framework (the Social Enterprise Spectrum) for thinking creatively about structural options in the social sector. Harvard Business Review, 1996 Social Enterprise Spectrum
Case Study: GuateSalud
Dr. Glenn Lopez, the founder and general director of GuateSalud, faces cash flow problems and some crucial choices about how to expand his innovative health maintenance organization for agricultural workers in rural Guatemala. The case describes Lopez’s six-year struggle to establish GuateSalud and the organization’s effort to combine business principles with a social mission. Also […]
Social Enterprise: Private Initiatives for the Common Good
This note identifies six dimensions that are useful for understanding the differences between private social-purpose organizations (nonprofit and for-profit) and traditional business firms. It also discusses the role of social enterprise in society and trends creating opportunities for social entrepreneurship. Harvard Business Review, 1994 By Gregory J Dees Social Enterprise: Private Initiatives for the Common […]
Note on Starting a Nonprofit Venture
Provides anyone considering starting a nonprofit organization with a basic understanding of the nature of nonprofit status, tax and regulatory issues for nonprofits, and the distinctive management challenges associated with a nonprofit start-up. By Gregory J Dees and Alice Oberfield Harvard Business Review, 1991 Note on Starting a Nonprofit Venture
Sources of Financing for New Nonprofit Ventures
Designed to help nonprofit entrepreneurs design fund-raising strategies that are appropriate for their specific organizations. Discusses the major fund-raising alternatives, including foundations, corporations, government sources, wealthy individuals, and the public, and provides references for further research. By Gregory J Dees and Nadine Dolby Harvard Business Publishing, 1991 Sources for Financing for New Nonprofit Ventures
Case Study: NFTE
Less than three years ago, Steve Mariotti created NFTE, a nonprofit organization for teaching entrepreneurship to disadvantaged youths. The organization has gained national recognition, and offers a variety of programs on a budget of nearly half a million dollars. It is still run out of Mariotti’s apartment. Mariotti is beginning to feel the stress of […]