Sustainability
Greetings from Luang Prabang. I'm leading a one-time non-PEPY tour, in support of Digital Divide Data (DDD), which ends here tomorrow in Laos. www.digitaldividedata.com is an amazing organization with offices in Cambodia and Laos. Basically.... they took your basic data entry company idea, most often attributed to India, but then gave it a philanthropic spin. DDD employs landmine victims, people with polio, and ex-trafficked women, teaches them basic computer skills, and then works them into more advanced data entry and programming projects, and ta da! A sustainable non-profit model with a for-profit arm, bringing in revenue to support their amazing work! All of their employees work half day and must be enrolled in school the other half of the day with the goal being that they then move on after graduation. The revenue from the company is reinvested to pay half of the employees' school fees and further develop the company. On average, those who "graduate" from DDD are making $150+ per month, over 6x the national average of $25 per month. DDD is changing lives and I have really enjoyed being a part of their 5 year anniversary tour.
Their model is such an inspiration for anyone who is working to bridge the gap between the "non-profit world" and the "for-profit world". As Tom Suddes of ForImpact.org would say, those in the non-profit world don't wake up everyday and shout "WOOHOO! We're not making any money today! WOOHOO! Let's go out and not make any money today!" Instead we measure our impact, our "double bottom line", our work as it is in line with our mission. There is this grey area of companies who don't just define their mission as "we're gonna make tons of money" or "we're gonna save the world", but somewhere in the middle with "we're doing something sustainable that brings in funds and changes lives and lets us do good without having to walk around all day with a collection hat". That is where DDD is, sustainable, changing lives, filling their social mission, but also making money and using it for good. It took DDD only just under 5 years to get to this point, where their company is self sustainable. PEPY is getting there, step by step, and it's great to have a role model to follow.
Their model is such an inspiration for anyone who is working to bridge the gap between the "non-profit world" and the "for-profit world". As Tom Suddes of ForImpact.org would say, those in the non-profit world don't wake up everyday and shout "WOOHOO! We're not making any money today! WOOHOO! Let's go out and not make any money today!" Instead we measure our impact, our "double bottom line", our work as it is in line with our mission. There is this grey area of companies who don't just define their mission as "we're gonna make tons of money" or "we're gonna save the world", but somewhere in the middle with "we're doing something sustainable that brings in funds and changes lives and lets us do good without having to walk around all day with a collection hat". That is where DDD is, sustainable, changing lives, filling their social mission, but also making money and using it for good. It took DDD only just under 5 years to get to this point, where their company is self sustainable. PEPY is getting there, step by step, and it's great to have a role model to follow.
Daniela Papi
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