Social innovators around the world have begun to reach a disquieting conclusion: Inspired vision, impassioned leadership, enthusiastic volunteers, government subsidies and a phalanx of donors are not always enough. But there comes a time when most founders begin to understand that living from year to year does not ensure the future, and that is the moment when they begin migrating from innovation to entrepreneurship. They turn toward commercial markets, gradually exploring the possibilities for earned income, many for the first time, and often with reluctance given their uneasiness about the profit motive.
The above paragraph is essentially how my friend Jerr Boschee starts his new book, "Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship: How Non-Profits Are Moving Toward Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency." Jerr provides an overview of the forces that led to the emergence of social entrepreneurship in the United States. As fascinating as that may be, I found his 14 "critical success factors" for building a successful social enterprise the most significant part of the book.
Jerr's personal history in many ways tracks the development of social entrepreneurship. Perhaps better put, he is both product and pioneer of a social movement.
In 1968 he worked in Northern India as a volunteer with the Peace Corps. He returned to the United States and eventually landed a position working alongside (as personal aide to) Bill Norris, the founder of Controlled Data Corporation. CDC was a pioneering supercomputer firm; for most of the 1960s they built the fastest computers in the world.
Bill Norris also had a passion for building social enterprises. He felt that the Carnegie model of philanthropy - make lots of money then give it away - put limitations on non-profits. Because the non-profit would be dependent on its latest donor, it would lack a certain stability. Beyond that, the non-profit would have a two-track focus - its primary social mission as independent from raising the money to fuel that mission. Wouldn't it be better, Norris reasoned, to integrate the operations more directly into a social mission?
Norris banded CDC together with other major corporations to create what became the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs. Jerr worked there for 16 years, serving as President and CEO for the last nine. Today he wears two hats, as director of an agency offering volunteer opportunities for former Peace Corps volunteers and as director of a think tank, the Institute for Social Enterprise.
In his new book, Jerr shares the lessons he's learned about driving a "double bottom line" - a virtual blend of financial and social returns. He warns that the single greatest obstacle in making this shift is the resistance of the organizational culture. "The cultural transformation can turn into a war," he notes. Hiring people from the for-profit world often becomes the match in the tinder box.
After giving some hints how to soothe the cultural transition, Jerr turns his attention to those factors that are essential ingredients for success. They include attitudes like candor and courage, as well as operational thresholds like building the right team and strategic marketing.
Given my own experience in the social venture world, I latched on to his critical factor #10: "focus, focus, focus." No, that's not a misprint; you can never get enough of focus in building a social enterprise. As Jerr points out, non-profits will be ever tempted to pursue an unrelated business proposition that has the allure of being a cash cow. As long as it supports the social mission, who cares if its off course, right? Wrong...most of these efforts fail because it takes the venture into areas where they have little expertise or network of partners. Jerr's advice is to nail a commercial niche that is directly connected to the social mission of the organization.
In many respects, Jerr's book is a primer for social enterprise. Those already in the game have probably learned many of his lessons the hard way. But even seasoned social venture entrepreneurs may want to use it in their organization as a training manual to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
I love how Jerr closes his book, quoting non-profit executive Robert Harrington: "If you want to help poor people of the world, step one is to make sure you're not one of them."
To order "Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship," write Jerr Bosch (jerr@orbis.net). Significant discounts available for bulk orders.
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