[From the class of 09]

It's your money, and you're willing to give some of it away to a worthy cause. But you want to see results. Measurable progress toward agreed-upon goals. Regular proof that your investment is achieving maximum impact. That's the way businesses operate, and charities should be no different.

That's one way to look at it, anyway.
Others argue that things work differently in the world of nonprofits and social change. Tackling some of society's biggest problems is unlikely to produce anything like the steady, chartable path of progress that investors require. And that's simply something donors have to live with if they want to help those most in need.

So what should you expect of your charities? Businesslike efficiency? Or something more intangible, less-easily defined?

Charles R. Bronfman and Jeffrey R. Solomon, chairman and president, respectively, of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, favor businesslike thinking. Michael Edwards, a distinguished senior fellow at Demos, a social issues think tank, argues that social values should take precedence.

Read the rest here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 27678.html

Interesting read on how charities/philanthropies should be run. Interesting to think of how this should apply to christian charities and churches.

[flamesfan30]

invisible children, a non profit dedicated to end the use of child soilders in central africa and the arrest of war criminal joeseph kony as always operated as a business. and today, they got namedropped in an report by the obama adiminstration on how they have effictivly set up early warning systems to warn of LRA soilders coming to abduct chilren.

i cannot think of another non profit that has so effectively used this business model to affect change in the world. theyre success is truly remarkable, and a testament to relavancy of this model. their founder also spoke in convo along with the "do hard things" guy this year.