February 21, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Social Enterprise Sourcebook
by Jerr Boschee
This book offers 14 case studies of nonprofit organizations that support their charitable programs with for-profit ventures. Mr. Boschee then uses these case studies to illustrate various lessons to be learned from such enterprises.
In one case study, for example, Rick Walker, president and founder of Road to Responsibility, a nonprofit group that operates seven small businesses in Marshfield, Mass., that employ disabled people, recounts concerns he and others have had about the risks of running so many businesses.
“We need to be prepared to eat our mistakes, and most nonprofits are not real good at that,” Mr. Walker says.
Another case study, focusing on a printing and copying business that provides jobs for people with multiple barriers to employment, discusses the issue of adopting a for-profit mentality in a nonprofit environment.
Mr. Boschee aims to provide the reader with details on what led to the eventual success of each enterprise. Each chapter describes how the business got started and what challenges and even, in some cases, initial failures the parent organization faced. He also includes contact information and data on financial performance and other issues.
Jerr Boschee is founder and executive director of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Publisher: Northland Institute, 13911 Ridgedale Drive, Suite 260, Minneapolis, Minn. 55305; (952) 541-9674; fax (952) 541-9684; http://www.northlandinst.org; 96 pages; $26.95; I.S.B.N. 0-9713899-0-X.
