Why are so many charities ineffective?
SOCIAL entrepreneurship—the application of business principles and practises to solve social problems—is all the rage. The new sort of philanthropist who sees giving as a social investment wants to support social entrepreneurs in the same way that for-profit investors want to back ordinary (anti-social?) entrepreneurs. Judging by the number of courses in social entrepreneurship now taught at leading business schools, many an MBA student would rather work for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) than a traditional company.
Yet even as its popularity soars, sober observers of social entrepreneurship are starting to ask if it lives up to the hype. Where is the social-entrepreneurial equivalent of a for-profit start-up like Google or Microsoft or any other large global business? Where is the evidence of massive social change?
Working for Jimmy the evangelist
Yes, Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, which provides small loans to millions of poor people in developing countries, has proved that a social entrepreneur can build a big, multinational organisation (though even he has not greatly reduced poverty). But where are the others? Is Mr Yunus more exception than rule?
The six are:
- advocate and serve.
- make markets work.
- inspire evangelists.
- nurture non-profit networks.
- master the art of adaptation.
- share leadership.
See full Article.
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