NonProfits First

After hovering around the edges of the nonprofit sector for years, social entrepreneurship has moved into the mainstream. Venture philanthropists, traditional grantmakers, boards of directors, nonprofit entrepreneurs, consultants, and academics are all rushing to the table—many without the tools they need. They can find those tools by turning to the experiences of the pioneers in the field—nonprofit veterans who’ve been quietly making mistakes and learning from them for decades. Here are eight basic principles that have emerged from those travails as articles of faith.