Greed for Good

Consider two powerful forces with the potential to upend the global economy as we know it. The first trend is the dramatic transformation of the nonprofit world from sleepy, under-resourced, and inefficient to market-minded, well-funded, and eager to change the world. The second trend, driven in part by the first, is the emergence of the ?philanthrocapitalist.? This new specimen of the global economy leads organizations that don?t fall neatly into either the for-profit or nonprofit worlds. Their companies are, in fact, a little bit of both. One example is Ashoka, a pioneering social-sector incubator that has helped hundreds of firms with hybrid business models take off. The new breed of market-minded ?philanthrocapitalist? is also typified by New York?s Acumen Fund, which invests donor money not in old-fashioned NGOs but in social firms that have viable business models delivering both profits and social goods (like clean water or malaria protection). If companies like these continue to prosper, they could help the world tackle many of the difficult problems that governments and traditional businesses have failed to solve.

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