Economic Strategies for Social Impact
Earned Income Strategies
Putting Nonprofit Business Ventures in Perspective: In the lead chapter in a “how-to” manual for social enterprise produced by the Yale-Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures, Greg Dees lays out cautionary words about the challenges, costs, and risks associated with nonprofit business ventures and provides careful guidance on writing and implementing a business plan for a nonprofit enterprise.
Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income: A Guide to Successful Enterprise Strategies, Oster, Massarsky, and Beinhacker (eds.), Jossey-Bass, 2004.Developing Viable Earned Income Strategies: Beth Anderson, Jed Emerson, and Greg Dees expose some of the myths associated with earned income strategies and put forth a framework and many examples to help entrepreneurial practitioners thoughtfully explore three paths to revenue generation.
Chapter 9 in Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs: Enhancing the Performance of Your Enterprising Nonprofits, Dees, Emerson, and Economy (eds.), Wiley, 2002.Enterprising Nonprofits: In this Harvard Business Review article that was reprinted in Harvard Business Review on Nonprofits, Greg Dees draws on numerous case examples to help practitioners recognize the opportunities and risks associated with pursuing earned income.
Harvard Business Review, January-February, 1998, Reprint #98105.CASEconnection Articles on Economic Strategies: In two short pieces for the CASE e-newsletter, Beth Anderson offers key lessons taken from a more academic piece on for-profit social ventures and responds to recent articles in Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review on nonprofits pursuing earned income:
• “For Profit Social Ventures,” CASEconnection, Spring 2005.
• “Mission-Driven Social Enterprise: Integrating Income and Impact,” CASEconnection, Spring 2005.
Mobilizing Resources
Resource Mobilization: Greg Dees introduces nonprofit leaders to the entrepreneurial art of resourcefulness, providing tools for assessing resource needs, reducing initial cash needs, and developing an effective resource mobilization strategy.
Chapter 7 in Enterprising Nonprofits: A Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs, Dees, Emerson, & Economy (eds.), John Wiley & Sons, 2001.Sources of Financing for New Nonprofit Ventures: This note helps 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.
Harvard Business School Publishing, 9-391-097, 1991, rev. 1996.
Economic Structures
The Social Enterprise Spectrum: Philanthropy to Commerce: 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 School Publishing, 9-396-343, 1996.For-Profit Social Ventures: Noting the rise in the number of social entrepreneurs who want to combine a social purpose with a for-profit organizational structure, Greg Dees and Beth Anderson draw on a wide range of literature and case studies to provide a “value chain” framework for identifying possible sources of competitive advantage for for-profit social ventures. The article then elucidates some of the challenges facing ventures aiming to blend social and profit motives and outlines strategies for responding.
International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, Senate Hall Academic Publishing, 2003, volume 2, special issue on social entrepreneurship.Sector Bending: Blurring the Lines between Nonprofit and For-Profit: Greg Dees and Beth Anderson explore the phenomenon of “sector-bending,” looking at organizations that defy easy classification by combining the attributes of business and nonprofit organizations. The article identifies both potential benefits and risks associated with this activity, concluding that organizational structure still matters, but society would benefit from continued experimentation with creative new approaches to achieving social impact.
Society (Social Sciences and Modern Society), vol. 40 no. 4, May/June 2003. Reprinted (with references) in Peter Frumkin and Jonathan Imber (eds.), In Search of the Nonprofit Sector, Transaction Publishers, 2004.The Challenges of Combining Social and Commercial Enterprise: Drawing on their own observations and exploring in depth Norman Bowie’s book University-Business Partnerships: An Assessment, Greg Dees and Jaan Elias discuss emerging issues surrounding efforts to bring commercial methods into social-purpose organizations.
Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 8 no. 1, January 1998.
Entrepreneurial Philanthropy
Entrepreneurship in Philanthropy: Based on remarks by Greg Dees at the 2005 International Foundation Management Symposium, sponsored by the Bertelsmann Foundation, this short piece defines philanthropic entrepreneurship and applies Schumpeter’s framework for “new combinations” to philanthropy, identifying five categories of examples and opportunities for innovations in philanthropy.
Note on Innovations in Philanthropy: Published when Greg Dees and Beth Anderson were at Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation, this note provides a framework for thinking systematically about innovations in philanthropy. Applying this framework to three historical innovations in society (professional foundations, federated community campaigns, and community foundations) and three modern innovations (charitable giving funds, e-philanthropy, and venture philanthropy), it explores methods for creating value for donors, recipients, and society effectively and efficiently.
Stanford University’s Center for Social Innovation, SI-05, 2000. Available through Harvard Business School Publishing