Non Profits Part 1

Can a non profit organization act as a free market based business? There is some precedent toward thinking this may be the case. Monasteries once produced brandy and wine, selling them to consumers and then using the money to fund their ministries. There's no reason why this couldn't happen today. In fact, it all ready has to some extent.

There is a new crop of church coffee shops that have popped up around the nation, either acting as a ministry to the church or an organization that funnels some of the money back into the community, or both. Many people refer to this as "third space evangelism", a term coined by David Fitch, author of The Great Giveaway. The idea behind this concept is that people interact mostly with their faith at home or at work. Where will the third space be? A coffee shop perhaps? I'm interested in evangelism but a lot of my interest lies in the mechanics of what could be a new economic revolution.

David Rasmussen, the Dean of Social Sciences at Florida State, was saying that free markets are the triumph of trust, not the triumph of greed. Many in the church may disagree with that statement, believing that capitalism is an evil machine. However, capitalism can bank some major dollars for the suffering and impoverished.

One of the most beautiful things about the coffee shops is that they're selling something to people that people "need" or would at least otherwise buy. Rather than selling M and M's door to door these folks are set up as normal business operations that sell a desired good for a good cause. Rather than being profit maximizers they are retained earnings maximizers. What is to say that coffee shops and restaurants are the end? Why couldn't there eventually be more non profit businesses selling people things that they would otherwise buy elsewhere?

In upcoming posts I will write about some of the finer points of the non profit. This is something that interests me very much and I will be writing my thesis on this topic. Like a hub there will be some spokes to this central topic too.