Growing Social Enterprise Weighs Whether to Stay Nonprofit
July 11, 2013 | Read Time: 1 minute
A social entrepreneur wrestling with whether to metamorphose his charity into a for-profit or hybrid entity as he struggles with fundraising and growth is the subject of a New York Times small-business case study.
ThinkImpact grew out of work founder Saul Garlick started in his teens 11 years ago to encourage entrepreneurship in developing countries. It sends students to live with families in poor communities and help them start “microenterprises” such as a cocoa nursery in Ghana and water projects in Kenya.
As ThinkImpact grew, Mr. Garlick said, the need to continually solicit funds crowded out mission work without making the organization more financially sustainable, leading him to consider whether becoming a for-profit social enterprise or creating a commercial subsidiary would better serve the organization. The article includes comments from experts on the various approaches.
