Week 6 - THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

My title for this blog post is actually a Bob Dylan song, and while searching for the lyrics, I came across this article on how technology in the globalised economy of the 21st century affects the development of social enterprises (SEs) and nonprofit organisations (NPOs).

Dahna Goldstein is the founder of PhilanTech, a web-based system that creates online applications made to provide maximum efficiency and impact for non-profits and foundations, scrapping all the unncessary time and money wasted on administrative work that comes along when funding is provided for. This idea came about while Dahna was working under the well-known SE organisation, Ashoka, where she was given the task of measuring the impact of the various programmes being run by Ashoka in the US and in Canada, but there was no data available as everything had been done through paperwork. She felt that it was completely inefficient, and she had to do something about it. (Bayrasli, 2011).

Image from bcorporation.net

"The idea is for both to use donor dollars on projects rather than process." - Dahna Goldstein

Through such technology, it's allowed for more effective planning of resources for social enterprises, whereby data can be easily retrieved through this software and funding being given without a tiresome administrative process. My personal view on this is that it is very in line with the way society is nowadays; fast-paced, IT savvy and fully reliant on efficiency. We can clearly see how social enterprises are moving along with the change that is happening in the world, with more and more innovative companies spurring a social transformation within their enterprise. (Gotkin, 2012, para.2).

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you

Is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'

- Bob Dylan

References

Bayrasli, E. (2011, August 22). Social enterprise spotlight: For non-profits & foundations, the times are a changin'. Forbes. Retrieved on 12 November 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2011/08/22/social-enterprise-spotlight-for-non-profits-foundations-the-times-are-a-changin/

Gotkin, Z. (2012, August 15). Top 5 social enterprise technologies for business. MashableTech. Retrieved on 12 November 2012, from http://mashable.com/2012/08/15/business-social-enterprise-technologies/