Profit with Purpose

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Comment by Maria Ana Neves on February 5, 2013 at 9:43

Thanks David, that is sharp and clear! 

we have a difficult phase ahead, as we need to apply for grants for this stage to support a small operational team, plus benefit from pro-bono and volunteers. The ability to generate revenues will happen when we gain critical mass. 

But the ambition is not to stay on grants forever, neither to limit our freedom by the need to generate revenues. Any views?

Comment by David Floyd on February 3, 2013 at 13:35

Pros and cons (for the people running the organisation):

Charity:

pros: tax advantages, easier to get grants

cons: slightly more reporting and objectives tightly regulated, split governance structure (can't be paid member of staff + trustee

CIC - pros: simple, no need for split governance structure, no significant restrictions on what you can do to generate income

cons: no tax advantages, harder to get grants

Comment by Maria Ana Neves on February 3, 2013 at 11:56

Can you help us make a decision for Plan Zheroes: shall we become a Social Enterprise (C.I.C)  or Charity? What are the pros and cons?

 

Plan Zheroes (Zero Food Waste Heroes) is a RSA Catalyst Awarded project with one mission: connect businesses with surplus food with charities/community groups able to give surplus food to people who need it.

 

For +2 years PZ developed as a citizens initiative and successfully helped both sides discover simple solutions for their specific cases and learned many ways to overcome barriers.

 

Becoming an enterprise was not in our minds, we only wanted to solve a problem, and promote real life Zheroes, and now see it is working so well, and we have an amazing committed team, it gave us a real kick to make it work!

As we found ourselves willing to dedicate more time to PZ, but at the same time live a life and pay our bills, we think we could create jobs and hopefully develop a sustainable model to the future.

It means it is time for a decision about the best model for us, anyone able to help with it?

Comment by Michael Townsend on August 28, 2012 at 9:16

What Could Sustainable Banking Look Like?

I am delighted to share some insights from our latest in-depth case study on our Global Research Project 'In Search of Sustainable Business'...

Follow this link to RSA blog posting.

Comment by Carlos Largacha-Martinez on July 31, 2012 at 15:44

Hola. Is someone from RSA going to the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management at Boston this weekend? It would be great to meet personally someone from the RSA!

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on July 20, 2012 at 8:56

well that seems to end another conversation. so how about love and compassion in business and economics?

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on June 30, 2012 at 8:46

So many truths there Colin.

Before I go further, may I suggest transferring this conversation to a thread such that participants will be able to respond to each other and be informed of updates.

A couple days ago, in one of my many conversations with David Floyd, he asked who would now provide social enterprise support. I had never experienced any form of social enterprise support.

I would be one of those you describe, with skills and knowledge to stimulate my local economy and yet it seems, even doing so from our own resources fails to engage with the industry of unemployment.

Reflecting on what we attempted 8 years ago, to seed this kind of bottom up local economic development, my colleague who had been successful in leveraging microenterprise development in Russia said that he'd come to the conclusion that nobody understood what we were saying.      

   

Comment by Colin Crooks on June 29, 2012 at 7:45

Hello everyone you can now listen to the full podcast version of my Four Thought talk recorded at the RSA. I'd really value any comments , thoughts you have on this issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fourthought

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on June 28, 2012 at 20:31

Recently I read an exchange in the Guardian on Creating Shared Value where Mark Kramer said that corporations could profit from solving social problems. So I put to him an alternative idea, that a business could exist for the sole objective of solving social problems. I referred to the argument for this in the proposal to leverage investment for childcare reforms.

It turned out to be a very challenging question for him and the Guardian alike.

BTW, it's been reported that Ukraine spent 9 billion dollars preparing for Euro 2012. In comparison the cost projected for childcare reform would have been  $480 million dollars for infrastructure and $325 million recurring to staff and run the homes.

What I'm saying to you is this. The social capitalist must be as hard nosed as his antisocial counterpart and challenge those that place personal interests above the common good. .           

 

 

Comment by Jeff Mowatt on June 28, 2012 at 19:36

Pascale,

I could answer with long quotations about how we can deploy capitalism for social benefit, but let me contextualise it with the core object of our own efforts which can be seen both as a failure and a success in Every Child Deserves a Family   

As you may note, we still have vested political and business interests working against us.  

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