The mission social entrepreneurs embrace when they decide to put their energy and passion towards bettering the world, need not always—though almost always—be fulfilled through nonprofit status.
This article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog notes another way.
An excerpt.
“I recently bumped into Debbie Reck, founder and executive director of Writers’ Express, a youth writing program.
“Her organization has had real success with its curriculum and has seen increasing demand for its programs from other markets in recent years.
“Debbie and I have spoken a few times over the past year about the quality of the group's programs and how it has been trying to find the right funding partnerships to help it expand.
“It had relied on a couple of committed funders and some supportive board members. But it had never connected with significant “equity investors” that could provide the capital necessary to help grow and support its infrastructure. As a result, it hadn't yet been able to scale up—to replicate its work on a larger scale.
“When I had last talked to Debbie at the end of 2009, she told me that she felt caught between funders who were asking her to adjust the Writers' Express goals to meet their own funding priorities and private-sector companies that saw real value in Writers’ Express programs. These companies were looking to commoditize the organization's programs for broader distribution.
“Debbie’s goal, though, was simply to hold on to the mission of Writers’ Express—to give all students the power to explore their ideas, the skills to communicate them clearly, and the conviction that the world wants to hear them.
“So when I saw Debbie earlier this month, I was anxious for an update. She explained that after many years of trying to scrape together philanthropic funding to keep Writers' Express moving forward, she had decided to take the private-sector route. She sold most of its programs to a national company, Wireless Generation, which provides tools and services to 200,000 teachers and 3 million students.
“Debbie had moved with the programs to the new company and when I asked her what the decision meant for her, I was struck by the response.
”It’s great," she said. "Finally I can focus on mission."
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.