Non-profit organizations and social
enterprises
Non-profit organizations are...
Organizations with a social purpose (e.g.to reduce poverty), furthered by reinvesting most or all of their
profits (like Wikipedia, pictured right).
They are also called social enterprises or not-for-profit
organizations.
How to be a successful non-profit organization (the 4
C’s)
1. Conscience – people before profit
A non-profit organization’s founders (sometimes called social entrepreneurs) and employees are
passionate about a particular social purpose.
Examples are:
- Charities like Oxfam and the Red Cross.
- Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth.
- Political groups like America’s NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement
of Coloured People).
- Retail co-operatives (stores owned by its customers who receive a share of the
profits).
- Fifteen – a group of restaurants run by unemployed people and set up by the British
chef, Jamie Oliver, pictured right.
- Big Issue – a magazine sold by the homeless in Britain to get them off the
streets.
2. Customers – they must come first
Non-profit organizations’ social purpose makes them attractive to customers.
So marketing (whose aim is customer satisfaction) in such organizations is often called social
marketing.
3. Commitment
Employees in non-profit organizations are inspired to work hard because they believe in what they’re doing.
4. Cost control
Any non-profit organization is motivated to minimize its costs, so that it can spend as much as possible on
achieving its social purpose.
Key quotes explained
“To improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of
humanity”
- the mission (or purpose) of the International Red
Cross.
This aim to help the poor and needy inspires its employees throughout the world.
“We made giving exciting”
- Bob
Geldof ,campaigner for Africa (pictured right)
This is his explanation for the success of the Live Aid concerts he organized in 1985 to
raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
People didn’t just talk about it, Geldof said, they were inspired to do something about it.
“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in”
- Rosa Parks , secretary of the NAACP,
the civil rights group, in Montgomery, Alabama (pictured right)
This is why she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955 (as African Americans were then
obliged to do).
Her courage sparked off the American civil rights movement and is similar to the dedicated resolve of employees
in all non-profit organizations.
Best books
Philip Kotler (pictured right), Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations
(1991)
Customer satisfaction in non-profit organizations requires great leadership and outside help.
Muhammad Yunus
(pictured right) , Creating a World Without Poverty
(2008)
Non-profit organizations (“social
businesses”) are vital to
eradicate world poverty and improve education and health care for the poor.
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