ON DEADLINE: When Government Can’t Do It
By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press
December 10, 2007
Government doesn’t have all the answers.
People like Vanessa Kirsch do.
Kirsch is the president of New Profit Inc., a venture capital fund she established in 1998 to help finance and support nonprofit community service organizations. Kirsch and other so-called social entrepreneurs combine the charitable ethos of service with business school pragmatism, and they are about to make a big play in the presidential race.
"Our No. 1 goal is to put the concept of social entrepreneurship and the power of national service on the radar screen of all the presidential candidates," Kirsch said in a telephone interview.
Her organization is joining forces with 59 other non-profits to create "America Forward," a national coalition dedicated to the principle that most of the nation's problems are being solved somewhere — often by small, community-based nonprofit organizations using innovative methods that government could support or copy.
The coalition spans the spectrum of social issues, from education (KIPP Schools and Teach for America), economic development (America's Family Inc.), health and well-being (Coordinated Care Network), philanthropy (Echoing Green), job training (Center for Employment Opportunities) and youth development (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America). The coalition goes public Tuesday, but American Forward leaders have quietly lobbied presidential campaigns for weeks.
"Oh, yes, I've heard of them," Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said between campaign stops Monday. "There is enormous hunger for community engagement, for civic engagement,
specifically among young people but they don't always have an outlet for it," the Illinois senator said.
"They've become cynical about government being able to get things done. So they look to the not-for-profit sector, whether advocating for issues like Darfur or finding career paths like Teach for America, or homegrown efforts to deal with the homeless or help the poor," he said. Obama, a civic activist in Illinois before entering public life, didn't need prodding from America Forward to make national service a centerpiece of his campaign. But the group's leaders cheered his address on the topic last week. "This will be the cause of my presidency," Obama declared, adding that he would expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 positions, double the size of the Peace Corps and create a fund to expand the reach of social entrepreneurs. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, all Democrats, have robust national service plans.
It is not a partisan issue.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a former Peace Corps volunteer, once served on the board of City Year, a highly respected nonprofit co-founded by Kirsch's husband. The firm Romney once ran, Bain Capital, has deep ties to City Year and the new America Forward coalition. "Our business is backing strong management teams with creative solutions to hard problems," explained Mark Nunnelly, managing director of Bain Capital. "I think a lot of us like the idea that you can take this same approach and apply it to not-for-profits."
He said of social entrepreneurs like Kirsch: "There is this new band of serious, young, aggressive make-it-happen doers who, but for another life's choice, could be successful in our business. They have dedicated their lives to fixing social problems. That model resonates with business people."
But how do you take an idea that works in a small, community setting and build it to scale for the rest of the nation? Business leaders like Nunnelly face that question all the time; now politicians like Obama and social entrepreneurs like Kirsch want government and non-profits to tackle the problem of scale in the social arena. "We want to talk about a new role for government that embraces solutions," Kirsch said. "In the past, we always looked to government. In the new era, we see this as the situation: We are running a great after-school program that maybe never needs to be government run, but they need to be invested in by the government ... or the government can help spread this solution throughout the country."
Obama said politicians must look to non-profits for problem solving because some of the best ideas flower outside government. Also, voters don't trust government or its leaders, he said, and are increasingly finding their own solutions through national service. Young Americans, in particular, are more engaged in community service than any generation since the so-called Greatest Generation, according to a variety of surveys and studies.
"Part of what you're seeing in this younger generation is that they're impatient for change and they're not going to wait for some bureaucratic snafu to get fixed before they get something done," Obama said. "They'd rather get something done themselves."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ron Fournier has covered national politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years. On Deadline is an occasional column.