When we hear the word, or hear about “non-profits,” we often think about organizations that seem like they are fighting the oncoming wave in order to try and do good.  Often with noble purpose, sometimes the mission seems too big, the emotional pull too intense, or success too fleeting.

Today all of that is changing.  We have a whole new group of organizations, perhaps the Gates Foundation being the penultimate example,  that look to the ideas and metrics of the for profit world.  They realize the importance of scale, marketing, transparency and ways to measure real success.  

They are, as Adam Braun calls them, FOR PURPOSE organizations. Adam is the founder of one of those organizations, Pencils of Promise.  He has now written about his experiences in The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change.

My conversation with Adam Braun: