Nonprofit Development and Social Enterprise,Venture Philanthropy and Earned Income

We, those of us who work for, manage, consult for, serve as board members of or may be the clientel, of  nonprofits have an active interest in seeing us be successful, must change our view of what charities are. Just as people who manage, etc., all have an active interest in keeing money coming in to survive, so do we, but for some odd reason many of us expect to be given what we call "funding" but most us do not even think about using normal business approaches. Some of us go so far as to actually reject the three main areas of income in the title above because it is somehow immoral.

We will discuss this rather fascinating topic itself later on but this is not the intent of this site. We want to provide information so that you can see just how rich Social Enteprise is and what the great range of efforts and topics are that do exist and further to the point, we must recognize how many ways we can raise funds that do not require what I have come to call the "angel phenomenon" which drives the ethic of deserving and being given money. And just how dangerous it is to even believe in not using Earned Income to survive. We are rejecting survival!

Regards,

Clive W. Beasley

 Our site is now being fully constructed and you will have access to useful social enterprise, earned income set examples, other sites and a full range of ideas to help you develop your own. Starting with development which in nonprofits and charities means developing both the organization itself and its sources of support.If you are part of running an organization then think about how someone involved might help start a social enterprise and if you have not yet begun your enterprise then work how you can incorporate social philanthropy into your whole mission and structure.

The primary advantage of social enterprise, social philanthropy, venture philanthropy or earned income or wherever you want to call it is that it provides sustainable income, you will last longer which is a good thing for charities as they go under more frequently than any other business which is a real shame when you are doing the common good and probably are doing or want to accomplish something for the common good and something humanitarian. Our objective is to help everyone exercise their humanitarian instincts which sometimes need a little exercise!

This site is designed to provide nonprofit staff and volunteers with a basic knowledge of how social entrepreneurship works and to assist with a pathway for you to utilize this approach to help you support your mission. It is clear that many clever individuals have found ways in very poor or third world countries to help improve the population's lives and to create a self-sustaining system to continue these benefits. Two primary objectives are at work here, in distinction to the use of private or governmental funding, a social entrepreneurial project in addition to helping people also has a profit-oriented element that creates the self-sustaining strength of this form of philanthropy.

For existing charities and philanthropies there are some important issues to pay attention to. This site defines social entrepreneurial activities as earned income. Services provided by the nonprofit and items sold fall under this definition. It can be of great benefit to combine contributions, unearned incomes, with earned business approaches. This does mean that organizations who are used to using all contributions for services must change a portion of this mindset and find funds that can be used as “start-up” funding for an earned income project.

It has not been lost on this site that most non-profits in this culture have an ethic that prevents the utilization of business or capitalistic approaches to their missions. Unfortunately it is not untrue that the need for nonprofit services in a variety of communities is probably caused by the profit-oriented culture.

CharityEzone's mission in addition to presenting ideas and projects that may give your organizationa heads-up on working social entrepreneurial and philanthropies, on potential sources of start-up funds will also maintain an awareness of the potential destructive aspects of earned income approaches and maintain a critical attitude to this very real problem.