The Mission-Driven Venture: Business Solutions to the World s Most Vexing Social Problems

Chapter 13Keeping ScoreWhat Success Looks Like

Charmaine Bowman was twenty-three years old when her mother died of cancer. Depressed and alone, Charmaine self-medicated with drugs, resulting in addiction that led to her incarceration. She hit rock bottom when she gave birth to her daughter, Aniya, in prison. When Charmaine was released in 2009, she needed help getting back on her feet. She turned to A Safe Haven Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that empowers families and individuals experiencing homelessness or crisis to achieve sustainable self-sufficiency.

A Safe Haven provided Charmaine with integrated recovery services that gave her a new start: Charmaine received addiction treatment and participated in morning meditation, twelve-step meetings, and pre-employment classes. She also learned marketable job skills through one of A Safe Haven's workforce development programs. With help from A Safe Haven Foundation, in time Charmaine transitioned to her own apartment, found stable employment, and reunited with her sons, Anthony and Alex.

If corporations seeking to maximize shareholder value define success by the amount of profits they earn, using financial statements and accounting tools to benchmark and demonstrate achievement, how can enterprises whose primary or secondary motive is positive change measure—and prove—success? Charmaine can tell us how A Safe Haven Foundation impacted her life, but is Charmaine's story enough to tell A Safe Haven's management ...