Wokai Blog: Non-Profits vs. For-Profit: Why Wokai?: Wokai China Microfinance Blog

Back to the question of non-profit and for-profit... what are the differences? I was reminded of this issue yesterday when I had lunch with someone who had been working for an NGO in Sichuan. Why, she asked, had I chosen to work for a non-profit?

I paused.

My answer is that I chose to work for Wokai because of what it, in particular, is doing and it really wasn't about the profit side of things; I love telling people about our work, I'm thrilled to be part of an organisation that is pioneering in many different ways, I feel connected to what it is doing and, finally, I know that what I do in our little office in Beijing has an impact on the Mongolian plains (not to mention Sichuanese villages). These feelings of, essentially, engagement and reward, are perhaps more likely in a non-profit than a for-profit but could, I would argue, be experienced in both.

I think that small non-profits and small for-profits are often indistinguishable from each other in their ethos and way of working; in Wokai's case we are a very lean office, we have ambitious targets and we work hard. Our income comes from donations but these donations would dry up if we didn't meet our targets, deliver metrics or do what we said we'd do. Like any small business we have to minimise costs and maximise income- we just don't keep the margin.

Of course my lunch partner could have been asking why I chose to work for something that wasn't going to make me rich - but we are making lots of people 'less poor' so hopefully the net, global effect is the same or greater!

P.S. Good article on this theme in The Economist a few weeks ago.