The first of the two roundtables I attended was called “Using Social Ventures for Skills Training & Job Creation”. While this could be seen as a very relevant and poignant topic, the floor was opened to the rest of the room early on in the session to ask questions, which I always find to be way more valuable of an experience for attendees. The panel for this roundtable had a nice range of non-profit leaders in Rhode Island. Tom Kane from Cranston Arc expressed that great success depends upon a fusion of both business models and that to be a successful social enterprise you must stray a bit from the non-profit mindset. I was surprised the term “not-just-for-profit” hadn’t been used, as it bridges both models that clearly have a lot to learn from one another.
One question that was given to the panel that often comes up regardless of the topic, is “Where’s the best place to start?” Advice echoed common mantras and also some unique and specific answers were given like, “Make sure your board is committed.” Something as simple as fostering collaboration instead of competition is not as obvious as one might assume it to be, especially when we live in a culture that largely favors the latter as the fastest way to success in a given industry.
One of the greatest nuggets of wisdom to come out this roundtable was towards the end where a couple of the panelists were expressing that their main goal is to help the people they serve find independence. These remarks reminded me greatly of a quote by Dennis Creech, Executive Director of the Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta, where he said “Our goal is essentially to put ourselves out of business.” I am both humbled and fascinated by this seemingly, “anti-business” business model.
