For over 10 years now our client base has been a healthy mix of not-for-profit (I dislike the nomenclature “non-profit,” as these days that term applies to every business, sans the oil industry) and corporations. This fact isn’t an accident; it’s very deliberate and for very powerful reasons. Just like the lines between the Republican and Democratic parties have blurred, so too have the lines between harder profit-driven corporations and softer impact-driven not-for-profits.
Not-for-profit organizations have traditionally looked to fulfill their missions of positive impact on humanity first, and sustainable funding, post initial endowment, second. By design, profit tends to be a primary tenet and mission of corporations, while having a positive impact on humanity fits somewhere in the background, if at all.
For so many reasons that I am not going to cover here, this landscape is changing, for the better. Both corporations and not-for-profit organizations need to become sustainable. This demands that corporations consider their impact on every constituent, from employees, their families, the communities they reside in and of course their shareholders. A great expansion on these thoughts can be referenced in a book, Firms of Endearment.
Not-for-profit organizations, on the other hand, need to think more like corporations. With state and federal grants drying up, revenue sources have to come from somewhere else. What it requires is balancing their cause with the funding sources to make it possible.
Our intent to have a healthy balance of not-for-profit clients and corporate clients lies in the fact that there is much learning to be shared between the two. Infuse a bit more business sense to Not-for-profit clients, and a little humanity and compassion to corporate clients. By mixing the two, Fathom brings a keen awareness of both types of clients to benefit all with new ways of thinking.
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Posted by:
Brent Robertson
Email the author:
brentr@fathom.net
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