Making the Case for Social Enterprise: Partners for the Common Good and First Book Marketplace
The social enterprise movement has increasingly been a focus in today's business education programs. To that end, Columbia Business School's Social Enterprise Program continues to support students planning for careers in the nonprofit realm. Through this program, students are given the opportunity to learn corporate concepts as they apply to nonprofit business. Partners for the Common Good and First Book Marketplace, a case study by Rick Larson, supports the Social Enterprise Program in this mission, as it addresses the use of debt financing by a nonprofit organizations. In this case, students are asked to take on the role of Partners for the Common Good's CEO, and evaluate a loan application from a nonprofit - First Book Marketplace (FBM).
First Book, the parent organization of FBM, is an organization that provides educational materials to children from low-income families. Shortly after its inception, First Book launched an on-line book store, called First Book Marketplace. FBM catered to community groups serving low-income children by selling books 50-80% below market price. This initiative proved successful in its pilot stage, and First Book moved forward with its plan to bring FBM to full capacity. However, the organization needed to acquire the financing necessary for maintaining the store's working capital, eventually seeking funding from Partners for the Common Good (PCG), a national nonprofit loan fund. In this case study, Jeannine Jacokes, CEO of PCG, must evaluate First Book's request and determine if a loan should be granted.
Cases such as Partners for the Common Good and First Book Marketplace provide students with detailed insight into the real-world decisions managers must make. These cases present various challenges specific to nonprofit organizations, allowing students to evaluate corporate strategies for financial, managerial, and entrepreneurial issues within the nonprofit realm. "First Book Marketplace is a dramatic illustration of the power of social enterprise to deliver both social and financial returns," says Larson. "Its success serves notice that the private sector is no longer the sole source of either innovation or results." If you'd like to learn more about cases highlighting nonprofit organizations, please contact us at ColumbiaCaseWorks@gsb.columbia.edu
