Tension

In an HBS Working Knowledge Interview, Jed Emerson talks about the need for management expertise in running nonprofits that can effectively bring about positive change. The article also examines such traditional issues relating to entrepreneurship as risk, competition, and accountability.

Emerson highlights a topic close to my heart: raising funding for creating the managerial and operational infrastructure for non-profits. Since funding for management and operations of most non-profits is deemed as money diverted away from "the cause," non-profits find it difficult to attract talent and build sustainable ventures that do not have to depend on survival based on grants. That reality alone is enough to motivate social entrepreneurs to consider sources of renvenue other than just grants.