Resources for Social Enterprise Done Right

Rosalyn Allison-Jacobs and Bob Harrington, in their recent post on Sector Blur, highlighted several examples of nonprofits that chose to support (and augment) their mission-related work through creative, multi-sector revenue-generation activities.  It is exciting to see the extent that social enterprise — everything from “double bottom line” businesses operating within a nonprofit structure to separate-but-affiliated for-profit ventures — has taken off in many corners of the sector.  For those interested in learning more we encourage you to check out REDF’s newly designed website, which has a wealth of information on social enterprise as a strategy as well as numerous case studies and profiles of specific ventures.  (Full disclosure — I worked with REDF and one of its social ventures as a Farber Intern back in the late 1990s and have been a fan of their work ever since!)  For nonprofits in the early stages of exploring creation of a for-profit venture (social franchise or otherwise), check out this blog post from Software Advice (a business that reviews nonprofit software), written by Janna Finch, in which she passes along advice from three nonprofit directors on how to help a board get comfortable with the idea of launching a for-profit venture.