Businesses With Social Missions Gain Popularity

More and more entrepreneurs are choosing to start for-profit ventures with social missions over starting a new charity, reports the Financial Times.

The article follows a woman who opened a chocolate-chip cookie business in one of the poorest parts of the world, Khayelitsha, near Cape Town in South Africa. Alicia Polak had previous experience delivering windup radios through a nonprofit group but grew frustrated at the lack of job training the group offered.

She decided businesses offered better models to help people, and she secured a grant from the University of Pennsylvania’s school of business to open her bakery. Such for-profit philanthropy is gaining advocates around the world.

But while many entrepreneurs disavow foundations and charities as outdated, nonprofit groups are often important sources of seed money for social business ventures.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of the blending of business and charity as well as a special package about charities that operate businesses.

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