Knowledge Items
Maitri AIDS Hospice
By Gregory J Dees and Beth Battle Anderson It’s August 2000, and Maitri AIDS Hospice in San Francisco is reevaluating its approach to fundraising. In recent years, Maitri has been relying increasingly on government, corporate, and foundation grants. Yet Don Spradlin, Maitri’s associate director for individual gifts who was hired in early 1999 to focus […]
Note on Innovations in Philanthropy
Provides a framework for thinking systematically about innovations in philanthropy. To be successful and sustainable, innovative approaches to philanthropy need to create value for donors and recipients, as well as for society. Three historical innovations in society are professional foundations, federated community campaigns, and community foundations. Even the most innovative program contains threads of the […]
Enterprising Nonprofits
By Gregory Dees The move by non-profit organizations to raise additional funds by allowing corporate partners the commercial use of their name or reputation would likely result in the corruption of the social mission of the nonprofit organization. Several options are open for non-profits to raise additional funds including cash flow and operating expense self […]
The Challenges of Combining Social and Commercial Enterprise
By Gregory J Dees and Jaan Elias A comparison of nonprofit and for-profit business organizations at a time when business is considered the model of efficiency and innovation provides significant insights into the norms that characterize these institutions, their functions in society and the viability of combining commercial methods with social objectives. Norman E. Bowie […]
Paper: A Customer by Any Other Name
Social Entrepreneurs can create mutually beneficial relationships with their stakeholders and donors by learning from customer-oriented businesses. Specifically, three good habits social entrepreneurs can learn from customer-oriented business includes: Who Cares, March/April 1998 p 36 – 37 By Gregory J Dees Article_Dees_ACustomerByAnyOtherName_1998
Social Enterprise: An Alternative Career Choice for MBAs
By Gregory J Dees For new MBAs interested in pursuing nontraditional business careers, the social sector provides a promising and challenging alternative. For the majority of MBAs, it is more likely that they will serve the social sector on a part-time basis at some point in their careers as board members, consultants or volunteers. Even […]
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