-Founding Partner and Guest Contributor

Mark is a lawyer, fiduciary, teacher and recognized expert in the area of professional ethics. In addition to active non-profit community engagement, one may also find Mark busy in his garden or kitchen or relaxing with a glass of red wine and traces of dark chocolate on his fingertips. He is the author of A Life at 50-ish.

 

Tucsonans support nonprofits with their time, talent and treasure at rates that exceed, by significant measures, those of communities much larger. (I could offer lots of statistics but please, just take my word for it!) We do so from a metropolitan area that is hardly doing well in our tough economic times. Who knows why, for sure, but we’re a generous, caring bunch of people.

So all of that is good, right? Yes, but it’s not enough! That’s right, not enough!!! For all we do, we’re working in a growth industry that cannot keep up with demand. More people with needs face us every day, and our industry lacks adequate capital (money and infrastructure) to serve its customers. And we simply can’t raise enough money to take care of everyone who needs help. Even in good times lots of people fell through the holes in the net!

So, that’s the bad news! What’s the good news? The nonprofit sector is in the midst of a renaissance. Really smart people are focused on generating better returns on investments. No, I’m not talking about picking better stocks within endowments. I’m referring to groups of people coming together to solve problems by focusing on outcomes and best practices. (In simple terms, please? Dollars can be stretched, so that they reach more people, more significantly. Think “working smarter.”

I’m oversimplifying, of course, but here are some examples:

• The nonprofit community is all over collective impact. (Learn the basics—enough to get the lingo and the concept—here:  http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/collective_impact/.)
• Lots of work has gone into rethinking marketing and branding. (Read Dan Pallotta’s piece, Stop Thinking Outside the Box, here:  http://blogs.hbr.org/pallotta/2011/11/stop-thinking-outside-the-box.html.)
• Dan Pallotta is also, with many others, making the case for rethinking overhead. His book is here: http://www.amazon.com/Uncharitable-Restraints-Nonprofits-Contemporary-Perspectives/dp/1584659556/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320901017&sr=1-1.)
• You can’t blink on the Internet without seeing fine articles published at the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Harvard Business Review, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the McKinsey Quarterly and many other sites.

So I have this dream:  For nonprofits to be out of business when I’m too old to be engaged in philanthropy, but only because they won’t be needed anymore! Because having an educated population will, once again, be valued by everyone to such a degree that we all share the cost. Because it won’t be acceptable for people to lack food in the wealthiest country in the world. Because … well, you get the point!

I figure on about 25 years to fulfill my dream. (Maybe 79—me in 25 years—will be the new 35, but right now I’m assuming 79 will be 79 in 25 years!) My dream presents lots of challenges, and 25 years is not a long time, but I know the goal is worthy and that if talented, committed people put their heads together, we can make great things happen. I also know two more things:  First, many, many people share my dream. Second, Social Venture Partners Greater Tucson provides a platform for us to work together to achieve the dream. We’re embarking on new engagement efforts that will ready all of us for the challenges and opportunities that are here, right now. Stay tuned! In the meantime—a few weeks—check out some of the links and explore. There’s so much going on in our world , and if we want to really, really make a difference, we all need to get really smart!!!