Hybrid Help

Source:  bestieawards.com

 

How Hybrids are Changing the Nonprofit Landscape

In social business, a hybrid is a business that creates a symbiotic relationship between for-profit business and addressing a social problem.  The two benefit and support each other, separate entities under a single business umbrella.  Traditionally, for-profit businesses donate money to nonprofit organizations, who then use those funds to address social problems.  By creatively incorporating nonprofit activities as a function of a for-profit business, or adding a for-profit entity to an existing nonprofit, hybrids are innovating the way businesses can help their communities and world populations who are suffering with social issues.  An example of this is the Hot Bread Kitchen in New York City, where low income immigrants bake bread from their culture and the bakery sells the bread to raise funds to pay the workers and cover business expenses.  The program provides training and work experience for people, who can then take their skills and experience to secure better paying jobs in food service and management. 

            At the root of the hybrid movement is a necessary sense of altruism; the desire to help others.  Having a desire to help does not necessarily mean you have to venture out and start a social business, hybrid or nonprofit.  In his TED talk, “The Why and How of Effective Altruism,” Peter Singer describes ways we can make an impact on social problems without completely reorganizing our lives or career paths.  Singer poses four questions:

1.      How much of a difference can I make?

2.      Am I expected to abandon my career?

3.      Isn’t charity ineffective and bureaucratic?

4.      Isn’t it a burden to give up so much? 

While people like Bill Gates and John D. Rockefeller created large charities based on their substantial personal wealth, not many of us have those resources available.  Most of us work hard just to afford basic essentials.  However, taking account of our spending habits and evaluating where we might be able to cut back can free up funds for charitable giving.  For example, if you routinely order take-out meals, cutting out just one of those a week and preparing the meal at home can free up $10 or more per week.  Let’s assume your family orders pizza every Friday night.  Two pizzas cost around $40, depending on your location and which company you choose.  By substituting a home-cooked meal at around $10, you could set aside $30 per week for charitable giving.  Over a year, that adds up to over $1500, which could make an impactful charitable donation. 

Instead of donating cash, you might feel that to truly make a difference you need to work directly on the social problems that stir your altruistic feelings.  While donating volunteer hours to an organization is always helpful, considering a career in social entrepreneurship working with hybrids and social businesses might be a more viable option.  If this is not for you, choosing a career with higher pay could provide additional financial resources allowing you to make a greater charitable impact.  Singer gives the examples of working in banking or finance, where you could not only make a higher salary, but you could also have direct impact on financial decisions affecting startup social businesses and hybrids, and possibly even advocate for microfinance projects. 

While it is true that some charities are ineffective, there are tools to ensure that your donations and investments are used wisely.  Researching charities via websites like GiveWell.org can help you make sound decisions about the impact your money will have.  Singer cites the example of helping the blind.  It costs around $40,000 to provide one guide dog for one blind person – a sizeable amount to help just one person.  By contrast, that amount could cure a blindness-causing disorder for over 800 people in an impoverished country.  By choosing wisely, you can avoid ineffective, bureaucratic organizations and have a greater impact in addressing social issues.

Giving up a portion of your time or income can feel like a burden.  Singer describes the cycle of earning money to buy things, then needing to earn more money to buy more things as comparable to Sisyphus continually pushing the boulder uphill. Try breaking that cycle.  First, consider the unnecessary luxuries you could do without, or time spent on things that are not necessary.  Then, reduce those things and activities that are not needed.  As you continue the process of eliminating things like impulse spending, wasting time on video games or television, or dining out instead of cooking at home you will realize an abundance of spare money and time.  A portion of this can be redirected to charitable donations and volunteerism, and the altruistic rewards will more than make up for any burden or feelings of loss.

Hybrids and social business are the face of social interventions for the future.  While there will always be a need for charitable donations and volunteerism, a large portion of this burden can be relieved by innovations allowing nonprofit organizations and for-profit business to merge into self-supporting entities that provide opportunities to solve social issues by their very existence.