I have started nonprofits, and worked closely with others.
I have also seen nonprofits that produce a lot of material that no one reads and that has no impact, but that keep getting donations from donors who aren’t paying much attention to impact, or who rationalize away the lack of it.
Examples of structural barriers:
Lack of patent protection, e.g., ability to obtain and enforce patent on repurposed drugs (example I mentioned and linked to in the article)
Regulation: e.g., many health insurance products you might want to create are illegal
Free public alternatives: e.g., it’s hard to profit in K–12 education because of public schools, making private school a premium/luxury product for the rich; something like tax credits for private school could alleviate this
Lack of patent protection does not stop a nonprofit from sponsoring research to run a clinical trial for a repurposed drug
Regulation on insurance offerings doesn’t stop a nonprofit from paying for people’s health care as a charity
Free public schools don’t stop a charity from offering an alternative free school
In each case, if a nonprofit wants to offer a product/service, they can do so, but the corresponding opportunities to offer the same product/service on a for-profit basis are prevented by the structural barriers.
I have started nonprofits, and worked closely with others.
I have also seen nonprofits that produce a lot of material that no one reads and that has no impact, but that keep getting donations from donors who aren’t paying much attention to impact, or who rationalize away the lack of it.
Examples of structural barriers:
Lack of patent protection, e.g., ability to obtain and enforce patent on repurposed drugs (example I mentioned and linked to in the article)
Regulation: e.g., many health insurance products you might want to create are illegal
Free public alternatives: e.g., it’s hard to profit in K–12 education because of public schools, making private school a premium/luxury product for the rich; something like tax credits for private school could alleviate this
I’m confused. Which of those structural barriers apply to non-profits differently than for-profit organizations?
All of these examples apply differently:
Lack of patent protection does not stop a nonprofit from sponsoring research to run a clinical trial for a repurposed drug
Regulation on insurance offerings doesn’t stop a nonprofit from paying for people’s health care as a charity
Free public schools don’t stop a charity from offering an alternative free school
In each case, if a nonprofit wants to offer a product/service, they can do so, but the corresponding opportunities to offer the same product/service on a for-profit basis are prevented by the structural barriers.