Nonprofit Groups Embrace For-Profit Enterprise

Some nonprofit groups are transforming themselves into businesses to be able to expand their reach, reports The New York Times.

The newspaper focuses on the effort started by Miles Gilburne, a former America Online executive, and his wife, Nina Zolt, a former lawyer, who put $10-million into the charity In2Books, an Internet program that was founded to help students use books and online tools to enhance their education.

To support and expand its original mission, in 2006 it acquired ePals, a for-profit company in Herndon, Va., that started as a Web-based electronic pen-pal service, transforming the once-struggling venture into a promising for-profit enterprise that has attracted generous support from investors and partners including National Geographic and Intel, which plans to begin shipping its Classmate laptops, designed for students in developing countries, with the ePals icon on the screens.

As social entrepreneurs continue to influence the landscape of traditional philanthropy, many nonprofit groups are seeking ways to generate revenue and become more self-sustaining. “This needs to be a large business to have a really significant social impact,” Mr. Gilburne said. “We couldn’t do what we’re doing as a nonprofit.”

See The Chronicle’s special report on creative approaches successful groups are taking to spread their reach.

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