Philanthropcapitalism

Last month, I attended a workshop for the US launch of 2 Degrees, a mission driven ‘for profit’ organization in the environmental sustainability space. A few years back I launched an employee charity match program at BT with the help of a small ‘for profit’ but likewise mission driven start up, then called Create Hope, now Truist.

I just read an interesting article ‘Saying Something Different’ by Matthew Bishop in Alliance Magazine. He writes compellingly about social enterprise and what he calls “philanthrocapitalism”. He also addresses how for profits and non-profits have a lot to learn from each other – a topic I touched on in a post 'What Business Can learn from Non-profits' .

I welcome the opportunity for learning and perhaps even blurring across the traditional boundaries between mission driven and ‘for profit’ organizations. For-profit organizations have much to gain commercially from developing their sense of mission and non-profits still need to remain financially viable even if they do not have to deliver a financial return on their investment.