Charities and Business

MAKING MONEY WITH A MISSION

The number of charities running businesses has been exploding — as organizations seek new ways to further their social goals. In California, Hope Services puts mentally disabled to work labeling wine bottles, providing dog day care, running a museum cafe, and carrying out numerous other paid jobs.

A HONEY VENTURE that provided former inmates in Chicago with transitional jobs wasn’t breaking even or training many clients, so it went back to the drawing board; it will now sell honey-based personal-care products.

A DOG-CARE SERVICE is one of several businesses set up by Hope Services, in California, to create more job opportunities for the mentally disabled people it aids.

IDEAL AUTO has yet to turn a profit for the Wisconsin social-service group that started it, but the “socially conscious” used-car dealership has given some 230 low-income people access to affordable cars.

FOR KICKSTART INTERNATIONAL, a Kenya charity that makes and sells devices that poor Africans use to start small businesses, social enterprise is the core of, not just a supplement to, its mission.

A BANGKOK RESTAURANT that is decorated with condoms, and hands them out with the bill, is part of a Thai charity’s efforts to halt the spread of AIDS and curb the country’s population growth.

“START SMALL,” and other words of advice for charity leaders looking to complement their group’s work with a money-making business.

AN ORGANIC DAIRY FARM operated by a San Francisco charity offers rehabilitation and an environment free of chemicals to homeless men battling addictions to drugs and alcohol.

PRESERVATION GREENSBORO, in North Carolina, rescues and refurbishes architectural artifacts, sells them, and uses the money for grants to help local homeowners restore historic properties.

SEARCHING FOR A BUSINESS with good wages and high demand for clients in need of jobs and training, the Doe Fund, a New York charity, settled on pest control, and has seen dozens of its trainees go on to full-time jobs.