Venture Charities BE HEARD!

Thanks Eva Patterson of the Equal Justice Society for posing the following in a commentary yesterday regarding the pending/evolving/devolving monetary crisis:

Today has been a wild day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 500 points. An already jittery nation wonders how Wall Street’s woes will affect Main Street. I have been watching the melt down of the housing situation with ideological interest. How does a progressive person view what we are seeing? Is there a progressive analysis of the economic woes that are affecting us? Woe and whoa!!!

Indeed, is there? And, to be presumptuous, why not? Perhaps we need a Equal Enterprise Society?

Sure some will argue that we can blame the entire issue on self-interested regulations that disproportionately favor the wealthy. Which is undoubtedly true. But on the other hand, this is mostly just a RE-action to the uncomfortable reality of an economic model that even some conservatives find distasteful—one that allows business opportunities to run amok at the expense of the most vulnerable, just because greed seems less ugly when it is hiding around the corner.

The fact is there is no real balanced and fair response because progressives have two challenges they too easily shy away from:

Knowing how to convert social justice ideals into practice enterprise opportunities that reward equality; and,

knowing when to stand up for those ideas UNTIL they become accepted ways of thinking or acting.

My work to develop the concept of Venture Charities (VentureCharities.biz) spins off of both of these unfortunate realities. The economic momentum of the day favors social entrepreneurism, wherein the supposed best of both global and community responsibility meets someone’s bottom line of profitability. But in reality, the vast majority of the work—and by far the majority of venture capital dollars—go toward ways to make the business partners more efficient, not in recognizing, refining, or even appreciating the underlying justice ideas that are now being usurped.

The passionate and committed nonprofit executives, volunteers, leaders and advocates who sit on one site of the teeter totter much too often allow the appeal of the day to just push them off the balancing beam on to their forgiving butts.

For some reason, we simply allow this to happen even when there are clear signs that “blended values,” as Jed Emerson likes to call them, have true credibility. (See BlendedValues.org for a taste of what Mr. Emerson means. Or, take a peek at SocialEdge.org where some good-hearted business leaders are struggling, from their perspective to understand if not fully reward the social aspects of healthy enterprise.)

I believe we have an incredible need and chance to address this imbalance. And the pending election is an exceptional avenue to follow.

There are some very good players associated with the pending California initiatives (including those most honestly connected with Proposition 11, the independent redistricting effort), though some of them have a long way to go before they understand all of the implications of what they are helping to unfold.

More than 10 million dollars is likely to be donated to the “good” side of Proposition 11 (CAVotersFirst.org), mostly by corporate giants who would normally not pay any attention to good or justice government ideals. The same is likely to happen with the California Forward effort (CAForward.org), though the progressive leaders of these efforts seem rudderless at this time. More than $15 million is already available for something to happen to move CA Forward!)

I hope your post-election gathering is productive in laying a strong, visible foundation for a real paradigm of responsible entrepreneurship—otherwise much of the same will simply slither right back around the corner again.

Thanks Eva.