Making For-Profit Markets Work in the Non-Profit World

I’m not completely alone or off my rocker when I advocate new ways of doing business to benefit those in need. Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant is the Good to Great of the non-profit world–same basic methodologies, same writing style, the whole bit. Jim Collins even has his named burnished across the top of the cover. It’s great stuff.

Like Collins, Crutchfield and Grant examine several of the best performing non-profits and identify the (surprising) characteristics that make non-profits like Habitat for Humanity and America’s Second Harvest such effective organizations—making a powerful difference in the lives of Americans.

Of the six things “social sector organizations” do, this is one: Make markets work. This summary from page 21 which is quantified throughout the book:

Tapping into the power of self-interest and the laws of economics is far more effective than appealing to pure altruism. No longer content to rely on traditional notions of charity or to see the private sector as the enemy, great non-profits find ways to work with markets and help business “do well while doing good.” They influence business practices, build corporate partnerships, and develop earned-income ventures—all ways of leveraging market forces to achieve social change on a grander scale.