Philadelphia's La Salle Nonprofit Center Launches Social Enterprise Activities for Nonprofits

PHILADELPHIA, PA, March 12, 2014 (Press-News.org) As nonprofits continue to struggle with the challenges of fundraising, fueled by ever-increasing demand for services, the fundraising holy grail of unrestricted funds is even more critical. The Nonprofit Center at La Salle University's School of Business has begun working with area nonprofits to help create social enterprises, businesses inside or outside of their organization that are created to generate unrestricted funds to support their programs and services.
"Social enterprise can take the form of activities such as a thrift shop or a cafe, but also means providing a specialized service to other organizations, as some of our clients are doing now," said Lori Moffa, the center's consulting director.

The program involves first exploring with the nonprofit the feasibility of a social enterprise, then planning so that the organization can implement it. "While this program is brand new, recent social enterprise efforts have included an historical society creating an in-house museum and library consulting practice to assist similar institutions, and a theater interested in an enterprise that would build sets for other local theater companies," Moffa said.

Clients will work with Nonprofit Center consultants, which includes a group of retired corporate executives who share their business acumen with nonprofit clients, in exploring and assessing their social enterprise options. The Center further supports the client with its wide range of services that generally strengthen the organization and increase its overall sustainability, including education, planning, evaluation, resource development, and building its board of directors. The Nonprofit Center may also leverage assistance from La Salle's Enterprise Center for the implementation phase of projects.

"We are seeing a growing interest in social enterprise," Moffa said, "not only for nonprofits supplementing the limited universe of traditional fundraising, but also for businesses that are recognizing the value of embracing a new way of doing business. Nonprofits need to recognize that they offer a wealth of talent and creativity which can be channeled toward developing long-term sources of new funding for their valuable services," Moffa added, "and The Nonprofit Center will be working with them to help discover these untapped opportunities."