The evolution of efficacy in the social services industry

Non-profit's scrutiny has become part of the modern evolution for better social efficiency and efficacy. Organizations such as Charity Navigator now rate their transparency and ability to meet their goals. On Charity Navigator (CN) we can see the Top 10 Highest Paid CEO's for the lowest-ratings-- non-profits like Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the American Heart Association let the viewers of CN know exactly who they won't be donating to. But it also has the Top 10 Top-notch charities and many other lists to help concerned donors find the right match to meet the causes they care about. In America, where we are rated as the #1 on the CAF World Giving Index their is a tremendous incentive for regular citizens to donate their otherwise taxed dollars. By controlling their contributions as deductions on their taxes they are able to control their money away from what many Americans imagine as a rather ineffective Government structure. This kind of empowerment of social programs through Government policy is a fantastic way to harness more inventive social programs than the government can cover. However, in recent years the scrutiny of non-profits has uncovered a series of public scandals and discussion of moral hazard within non-profit organizations. The slow degradation of our trust in both Government and non-profits to appropriately address social problems has led to the need for our current discussion on social entrepreneurship and this growing demand for Corporate Social Responsibility in popular consumerism. When we get down to the brass tacks, we won't need to spill financial support into non-profit social rebuilding programs if we find a way to prevent the market failures which play a major role in the creation of social problems. We live in an era where Americans we view a company as socially responsible if they simply pay their employees a living wage- but we fight any government pressure which suggests that companies should pay a fair wage. At the same time we continue to support a law which uses Federal funding to match the funds raised for Republicans and Democrats during the election season. This gross amount of money goes to feed a overpowered public media system. Our laws and structures are based in historical contexts which do not support the current age of innovation and entrepreneurship.

It is time we adjust the laws, the tax structure and the policy paradigm to support new ideas for a modern society. In both articles, Investing in Social Entrepreneurship and Fostering Social Innovation and Innovating the White House, we see their is a plethora of government policy which can help extend the future for social entrepreneurship. Those articles wrote to persuade the Obama administration towards better social policies and we have only seen a few of them in place. Despite the minuscule contributions placed into future social capital funding, as discussed in Let's Hear Those Ideas, we see a growing trend and a whole lot of promise for the future of social capital funding through the private sector. But I believe the deadweight is in our current system- the nonprofit market structure. We have a tremendous amount of resource given over to non-profit organisations which are only able to expend those resources to meet their goals. There has to be a better way than subsidizing our loss from charity by simply tax deductibles. These benefits need to be analysed against the benefits of a stronger social capital structure, perhaps something like social-impact bonds. In the mean time, our people will still innovate to find more fluid contribution structures. This one Portland Pub exists to donate to local non-profits of the communities' choosing. It is called, simply, the Oregon Public House. Regardless of whether or not the structure of the economics drives non-profits or social entrepreneurial ventures, this Pub will donate and invest in whichever program has the best ideas. A model like this independent for-profit fundraising might be a great direction for entrepreneurs to take during this state of mid-policy evolution that America is going through. Check out the video. There is still a long way to go before we can have a strong policy structure, and a long time because of our current political instability. What other ways can local social entrepreneurs support social programs of all kinds during this transition phase??