Narratives for Profit?
Ogden, UT
November 7, 2018
At the recent project meeting, Kelly Vause explained the dual nature of Narratives for Justice (N4J) being both a for-profit business and a humanitarian effort. Most people assume that not only is every humanitarian project a not-for-profit organization, but they assume that every humanitarian project should be not-for-profit. The clash in most people’s minds is that profit means someone is getting rich or taking an undue share. This is certainly untrue for N4J. The decision to operate N4J for-profit was based on providing the most creative freedom with the greatest audience impact.
“One of his business degrees is in Not-for-Profit Management,” Kelly shared, “and if John [Lindquist, Social Construct President] determined that running N4J as a for-profit project is most efficient and the most likely to produce effective results, then that’s all the convincing I need. The reality is that to date N4J has received 100% of its funding from other projects at Social Construct. If it weren’t for the profits from other projects, N4J probably wouldn’t exist. I hope that someday N4J will be successful enough to fund the next great project at Social Construct.”
This business model may work for Social Construct, but is it fair? The dichotomy of N4J’s volunteers contributing freely without monetary consideration to a project with full intention of being financially profitable raises this question. The volunteers for My Yesterday, Your Tomorrow are each currently or recently prison inmates. While they receive no compensation as volunteers, what they are afforded is opportunity for rehabilitation by giving back to society—this is their consideration and compensation. These men are indebted to their communities for their crimes and incarceration; sharing the stories of their youth through a narrative format repays some of that debt by deterring the next generation from making the same decisions to take from, rather than contribute to, society and their communities.
These men are not compelled to share their vulnerabilities, it is something they have chosen to do which evidences their ownership and comprehension of mistakes they’ve made. This is part of the reason why each narrative focuses on the decisions and choices that led them to crime. Exposing the influences, pressures, excuses and reasons of making poor decisions gives opportunity for today’s youth to explore those mistakes without having to experience them and suffer similar fates. N4J provides an education in real-life decision-making, without paying the real-life consequences of trial and error.
“John will hate that I say this, but Social Construct is a business with a heart. All of the projects we support have to provide real products or services which have to have the core [value] of improving society.”
The meeting adjourned with a quick and simple announcement: Kelly’s surprise promotion to Executive Director of N4J.