Sustainability - achievable goal or elusive myth

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Permalink Reply by Marcia Nedland on September 8, 2009 at 7:28pm

Myth in terms of the example you gave, I say, though I am open to a few rare exceptions. Rick Cohen wrote an interesting article on social entrepreneurism (often another way people talk about earned revenue and replacing grants) for Philanthropy Journal, in which he makes the case that nonprofits who are touted as great social entrepreneurs get a lot of funding from government, or have "success at the government trough" as he puts it. I am, however, a BIG believer in the management practice of understanding your cost-per-unit and "revenue" per unit so that you become conscious of opportunities to provide services in a more economical way, become better able to negotiate funding for the true cost, and get ckear about who really values the service you provide enough to pay for it.

http://www.philanthropyjournal.org/news/big-%E2%80%98entrepreneuria...

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Permalink Reply by Jason Zavala on September 8, 2009 at 8:30pm

Unequivocably attainable, highly improbable. Ron, based on what you offer, I'd say sustainability should be viewed as a behavior, not a goal. The problem lie in the true willingness of the organizations in the quest for sustainability to be willing to move to a position of sales versus acting in the vein of who else can we make the ask. We have products and services. We are data collectors - possibly a huge sale op. Our staff are products and yet many are rarely apporpriately positioned for success in being pitched correctly to external sources. Many of us would not report or collect what is being asked if we "owned" our own programs. So why not look elsewhere first for income stream? Anyway, not-for-profit is a tax designation, isn't it?.

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Permalink Reply by Marcia Nedland on September 8, 2009 at 9:11pm

Here, here, Jason.

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