Making money out of the poor
30 years ago, pursuing the social good and making money out of it was unthinkable, even blasphemous. Social work and business were apart, divided by a wall which few dare to cross. The role of businesses was just philanthropy: giving money away for projects without more involvement beside a certain level of results follow-up. The social workers’ role was the other way around: they were recipients of money from donors (public, corporate or private) and their job was to make the biggest impact possible with it.
But in the last few years this wall has crumbled down and the line diving social good and business is fading. And it is happening because of the social entrepreneurs, people that create their business not looking for profit but to have a positive impact on society (and earning a living, of course). It’s not the return on investment (ROI) what matters to them, what matters to them is the social return on investment (SROI).
And then raises the question: is it fair to make money out of the poor? It depends (as a teacher of mine once said, you can answer any question with “it depends, because of China or the Internet). It depends on the way they earn the money. If it is creating value in both sides, the customer (the poor) and the company, it is not only good, but the best way to work pursuing the social good.
Those social enterprises that are self-sustainable in economic terms will be the ones with more chances to create a bigger social impact, escalate and be prone to replication, becoming real change-makers.
Comments Off on Making money out of the poor /
28 Mar 2014
por
juancarlosgomezmartin
IMSD /
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