The value of the Not for Profit Sector in Mexico and its potential for Social Innovation

Long time ago I subscribed to the Centro Mexicano para Filantropia's
newsletter, which is a Mexican NGO that supports other NGO's to upscale
operations, staff and human capital. Two weeks ago I received a very
interesting one that surprised me very much. It was about the results of
the account of Non for Profit Organizations the Mexican government
included for the first time in history into the National Accounting
System.

The results are calculated based upon the 2008 economic census carried
out by the Mexican National Institute for Statistics and Geography. They
provide a very good panorama of the potential for social innovation a
country like Mexico has. Let's get to the facts.

The total number of Not for Profit Organizations in Mexico for 2008 was
40 089 with a gross production value equivalent to 23.9 billion dollars
a year, which represented the 1.96% of the country's GDP and its share
was bigger than what the whole agriculture sector produced during the
same period. From this amount, volunteer labor dollar value was about 2
billion dollars and was offered by close to 560 thousand people.

Among NFPO's 45.1% were dedicated to educational services while only
11.3% were in the health and social assistance sector.

To be honest I did not expect at all this sector could be that important
in a country like Mexico, and it made me wonder whether my impression
was biased or if there was something more about it.

After reflecting a little bit two questions remained to be answered: Is
it that what all this organizations were doing gets done in traditional
ways which oversee opportunities to use resources in more impact
effective ways or it is just that their work and efforts were not being
fairly recognized?

My intuition tells me that no matter what the answers to these questions
are, huge opportunities for social innovators and entrepreneurs are
still waiting to be found.

--
Ruben Fernandez <rfernand@andrew.cmu.edu>