Nonprofits Must Show How They Serve the Common Good

By Mark Rosenman

In "The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Nonprofit organizations and foundations have to make hard strategic choices about how and where to take action as problems grow worse and resources are stretched even thinner. Essentially, they need to think about their distinctive societal role in considering their options.

organizations seeking ways to do good: social-benefit corporations, for-profits owned by nonprofits, groups offering social-impact bonds and market-financing schemes, and other efforts that have increasingly blurred the lines between nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

Based on findings from years of personal polling from the back seats of taxicabs around the nation, I've found the public thinks that nonprofit organizations are characterized by volunteerism, sacrifice, and donations from rich and poor—all in service to those in dire need. But that’s clearly not true for much of the charitable world. What, for instance, makes a nonprofit day care center different from a for-profit one across the street?

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