Forces for Good

One of the emerging trends in philanthropy is the concept of “giving while living”–with donors taking an active role in their philanthropy during their lifetimes. Actually, this concept is not new, it was pioneered by Andrew Carnegie and outlined in his article “Wealth”, published in 1889. Carnegie encouraged “the rich man to attend to the administration of wealth during his life.”

Of every $1,000 dollars spent in so called charity today, it is probable that $950 is unwisely spent; so spent, indeed as to produce the very evils which it proposes to mitigate or cure.

Carnegie proposed that the skills & talents that were used to create the wealth in the first place, were the same skills & talents required to give away the wealth during a person’s lifetime. The Wealth article has influenced both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

In fact, these social entrepreneurs want to change the world and have the means to do it. However, “countless entrepreneurs are reinventing the wheel, starting new nonprofits without understanding what has been tried before or what really works,” says Steve Case in the book’s preface.

The book’s big idea is for social entrepreneurs to partner with other actors (government, business, civil society) to create extraordinary impact. Great nonprofits are catalysts; they transform the system around them to achieve the greater good. In order to create systemic change, nonprofits need to partner with government, business, individuals, and other nonprofits to achieve more than they could alone. They constantly need to adapt to their environment to stay relevant. They share leadership and power within and beyond their organizations, empowering others to become forces for good.

Greatness has more to do with how nonprofits work outside the boundaries of their organizations than how they manage their own internal operations. At its core, social entrepreneurship is an externally focused act. It’s all about results, not processes. And that’s why it sometimes looks so messy and chaotic from the outside. The solutions to society’s most pressing problems lie in the collective, not in any single institution.

This partnership idea (non-profit, business, and government)  is similar to the concept of Megacommunities, which I reviewed earlier.

After years of research, the Forces authors have come up with six practices of high-impact nonprofits which they believe benefit both philanthropists and nonprofits:

1. Work with government and advocate for policy change
2. Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner
3. Convert individual supporters into evangelists for the cause
4. Build and nurture nonprofit networks, treating other groups as allies
5. Adapt to the changing environment
6. Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good

On pages 214-223, the authors provide checklists for each of the 6 areas above, to encourage readers to put the ideas into practice. The Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) that Univicity participated in, is a practical example of these 6 ideas:

1. Advocate and Serve. The Gates Foundation (non-profit) partnered with the USAID & HIFIVE (government) and Mobile Network Operators (Business) to increase the impact of the HMMI contest.
2. Make Markets Work. The HMMI contest rewarded a sustainable business model from the Mobile Network Operators.
3. Inspire Evangelists. The HMMI contest inspired several evangelists, including Univicity itself, the Central Banker of Haiti, and several non-profits.
4. Nurture nonprofit networks. Many non-profits in Haiti are looking at mobile money as the next logical step in their cash-for-work programs. Over time, many non-profits will be part of the mobile money network. Univicity’s partners are working on a mobile money payroll services as a way to nurture the network of non-profits in Haiti.
5. Master the Art of Adaptation. The HMMI contest opened up huge opportunities for technology companies. Univicity had to adapt to the needs of the contest, putting some very lucrative contracts on hold. We believe the long-term benefit will outweigh the short-term loss.
6. Share Leadership. The leadership of the HMMI project is shared amongst Gates (non-profit), the mobile network operations, banks (business), USAID/HIFIVE, and the central bank of Haiti (government).

The Gates Foundation and it’s HMMI contest acted as a catalyst to get all of the players to move quickly. This chart illustrates the power of a high-impact non-profit that can tip the scales toward their goals (see figure 1.1)

Bottom line:  A high-impact non-profit can be forces for good by forming cross-sector partnerships to transform entire markets.