How Do We Become Socially Innovative?
How do charities become socially innovative without applying the business principals we often admire and compensate for handsomely? The short answer is, they can’t. Have you ever found yourself sitting at a board meeting, and someone will state that the organization needs to run more like a business? If we indeed want our nonprofits to run more like a business, we need to do the following:
1. We need to start a conversation about encouraging nonprofits to appropriately compensate executives and staff to perform at a high level.
2. We need to allow nonprofits to utilize proven and highly effective marketing, which costs money.
3. We need to allow our nonprofits to take risks in order to grow, and pursue channels to increase revenue, which in turn will move the needle and make significant changes to a social issue by enabling them to offer more services and programs.
4. We also need to allow a nonprofit time to grow into a new initiative. Just as a new business or a new product launch may take as long as three to six years to see a return on an investment, so must we allow a nonprofit to do the same.
5. We need to not look at profit in a negative way. Profits need to be looked at as simply a vehicle which enables us to do more good work.
For a more thorough deep dive into Polatta’s presentation, his TedTalk can be viewed here:
