Episode Details

Who decided profit principles belong only to shareholders when a not-for-profit could pay dividends to stakeholders and entire communities? Somewhere along the way the social sector picked up the idea that doing good and doing business belong in different rooms, that surplus is somehow suspicious. In this UNCORKED conversation, Tim Windsor sits down with Lisa Keys, Executive Director of Satellite Community Homes, a not-for-profit that manages affordable housing communities in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, and founder of a strategic operations advisory practice. Lisa has spent over 20 years where people, process, resources and infrastructure intersect, and she pours a Flying Monkeys Juicy Ass IPA for the occasion.

Lisa makes a clear case that doing good is a business. If you do not have money, make money, find money or get money, you cannot operate any organization, for profit or not for profit. Every organization needs to know its true cost of doing business, its fixed and variable expenses, and the margin it needs to keep the lights on and grow. Prescriptive funding gets capped, reduced or cancelled, so crossing your fingers for next year's cheque is not a strategy. Operating reserves, diversified revenue and fee for service built on what your team already does well are how a mission survives year after year without drifting from its purpose. She also believes the first step in a culture shift is language: when a not-for-profit starts talking about its work as a business, it starts to see its own value.

Tim pushes on the idea of buying groups, where organizations with 10 units and 500 units pool their power to negotiate at scale. Lisa says it is not happening nearly enough, held back by legacy pride and siloed thinking, and that it takes out of the box leadership to see that collaboration and confidence can live together. The deeper provocation is that the social sector and the business world are not that different once you peel the layers back. It is not doing good or doing business. It is doing good and doing business, mission and margin. Lisa closes with what a great day looks like, both as a business when her staff leave smiling, and as a community builder when a struggling tenant finds the support they need to stay housed.

Connect at https://uncommodified.com/

Tim Windsor
the UNCOMMODiFiED Podcast, Host and Guide
tim@uncommodified.com

PRODUCERS: Alyne Gagne and Kris MacQueen
MUSIC BY: https://themacqueens.ca/

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