Comments on: Stop Telling Nonprofits to Act More Like a Business

By: The Nonprofit – Business Dilemma « Doing good better

The Nonprofit – Business Dilemma « Doing good better — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:40:15 +0000

[...] is constantly at the edges of any conversation around the nonprofit sector. (See recent posts by Carlo Cuesta and Allison Fine about this topic.) Having had several years of experience in the nonprofit [...]

By: Richard Heil

Richard Heil — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:12:23 +0000

I thought a non profit could be a business without outside investors that used their skills for internal Net positive cash flow that’t reinvested like a city ?

By: Kristen Cici

Kristen Cici — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:43:24 +0000

While I agree with you for the most part, I do think that some nonprofits do need to act more like a business. For example, making a profit. Many nonprofits think they should budget for a net even (not gain, no loss), or that they aren’t allowed to have a reserve. This simply isn’t true. While nonprofits don’t need to, and shouldn’t act exactly like businesses, there are many traits they could take up. I mentioned a few in a post I wrote last year titled “Should nonprofits act more business-like?” – http://nonprofitsos.blogspot.com/2008/08/should-nonprofits-act-more-business.html

By: Who’s the Smartest Guy in the Room? « A. Fine Blog

Who’s the Smartest Guy in the Room? « A. Fine Blog — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:23:19 +0000

[...] Carlo Cuesta of Creation in Common has written this terrific post about the need for people to stop assuming [...]

By: Allison Fine

Allison Fine — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:48:17 +0000

Carlo, thanks for writing this, it is SPOT on. I’ve always wondered, and certainly more this year, what it is that people think for profit business know that we don’t know? What is it about reading a financial statement and talking about ROI that we think equals “smarter”? This is terrific.

Allison Fine