Why you should mind the gap

The difference between a nonprofit and for-profit business isn’t impact; it’s the gap between their source of revenue and the people they serve.

Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash

“I really wanna make an impact, so I’m thinking about starting a nonprofit.”

It’s a sentence I often hear expressed by people looking to solve a problem, make a change, or otherwise improve someone’s life. You know, deliver value to the world.

They’ve come to believe that businesses aren’t about making impact. Nonprofits do that because they aren’t in it for the money (it’s in the name and all).

Unfortunately, that’s a transactional view rooted in the old story about work. The old story says for-profits only care about making money and often leaves nonprofits trapped in a starvation cycle without enough money for the infrastructure they need to serve their people well.

Either way, we’re lessening our impact.

In the value economy, businesses exist to deliver value. The difference between what we currently call a nonprofit and a for-profit lies in the gap between their source of revenue and the people they serve.

If the gap is zero, you’re what we currentl…