Below the radar of the top-400 list are many other huge progressive success stories. The Rodale Institute has long underwritten cutting-edge work in sustainable agriculture, community economics and alternative healthcare through a publishing empire that includes Prevention magazine, a fixture on supermarket checkout lines. The Worldwatch Institute has supported its environmental work through the widely sold State of the World series. Greenpeace has creatively used everything from special music albums to concerts to raise many millions for its work.

Or consider Global Exchange, whose founders, Medea Benjamin, Kevin Danaher and Kirsten Moller, have been outspoken critics of free trade and the war in Iraq, and leaders of the California Green Party. More than half the organization's budget is financed through reality tours to countries such as Cuba; Green Festivals, which draw thousands of participants; fair-trade stores; and speaking fees. The organization is now creating a Global Citizen Center by renovating a building in San Francisco that will house a coalition of progressive groups and a community meeting space. It plans to bring down the costs through rentals, sales and fees generated by green businesses on the ground floor.

To get a full sense of how far US nonprofits could go to become self-financing, check out Cabbages & Condoms, a popular restaurant in Bangkok. As your senses become intoxicated by the aromas of garlic, ginger, basil, galangal and lemongrass, you cannot avoid noticing the origins of the name. On top of each heavy wooden table is a slab of glass, under which are neatly arranged rows of colorful prophylactics. Posters and paintings adorn the half-dozen large rooms, all communicating the restaurant's central message: The AIDS epidemic afflicting Thailand can be checked only through the unabashed promotion and use of male contraception. With balloon animals made from carefully inflated and twisted condoms and the after-dinner candies replaced with your own take-home "condom-mints," even teens cannot escape the message prominently framed on the wall: "Sex is fun but don't be stupid--use protection."

What makes the five "C&C" restaurants unique, along with an affiliated beach-front resort and numerous gift shops, is that they are all owned by the Population and Community Development Association, a rural development organization that has been a leader in promoting family planning and fighting AIDS in Thailand. Seven out of every ten dollars spent by PDA on such activities as free vasectomies and mobile health clinics are covered by the net revenues from its sixteen subsidiary for-profits. Were PDA dependent on funding from the Thai government, the World Bank or even the Rockefeller Foundation, it no doubt would be told to tone down the message. Jokes on its website--like "the Cabbages and Condoms Restaurants in Thailand don't only present excellent Thai food, the food is guaranteed not to get you pregnant"--would certainly be discouraged.

The cash flow gives PDA a measure of confidence and boldness. The founder, Mechai Viravaidya, has no qualms about his decision to employ for-profits: "Unlimited demand is chasing limited supply [of charitable donations]. No longer are gifts, grants or begging enough. From day one, thirty years ago, we have been acutely aware of sustainability and cost-recovery."

• « Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• Next »

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.