DAVID J. ELLIOT T
Aquasifs delivered to the local shops in Syanja
nomic development, energy, sustainability, and more. Ignoring the traditionally defined
roles of nonprofits, businesses, and governments, social entrepreneurs often collaborate
with multiple entities across sectors in pursuit of their goals and establish social enterprises,
like Village Forward, that blur the line between business and philanthropy.
���The idea of the social enterprise is to build capacity in the social sector by applying
business practices and managerial disciplines to drive sustained, high-impact social
change,��� explains Laura Moon, Director of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard
Business School (HBS).
Traditionally, nonprofits have operated quite differently from businesses; motivated by
compassion and filled with good intentions, they have placed limited emphasis on quantifying outcomes or achieving financial sustainability. Businesses, on the other hand, have
focused primarily on economic value creation; ���doing good��� has taken place largely
through corporate social responsibility efforts and by having employees serve on nonprofit
boards. But in recent years, there has been a shake-up in these delineations. Donors have
been demanding more accountability, transparency, and urgency. Businesses have begun to
see that it is often in their best interest to tackle social challenges that may affect their
operations and market opportunities.
As a result, today there are nonprofit organizations like Village Forward that take advantage of for-profit structures to create social value ��� in this case saving lives and generating
jobs. There are for-profit companies that act as philanthropists, like TOMS, that donates a
pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes purchased. There are multinational companies like ExxonMobil that collaborate with other companies, governments,
private individuals, charities, and non-governmental organizations to tackle seemingly
insurmountable challenges, like the eradication of Malaria. This deadly disease kills one
SPRING/SUMMER 2013
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