Jeffrey Robinson, Rutgers Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, deserves major kudos for putting on such an informative and inspiring social entrepreneurship event last Friday. 

One of the most important takeaways came from the keynote speaker, Karen Lee, the CEO of Pioneer Human Services.  If you haven’t heard of Pioneer, listen up – we couldn’t believe we hadn’t come across them sooner.

Pioneer Human Services is a nonprofit organization that provides drug treatment, job training, housing, and other services to support people as they turn their lives around.  But this is not your typical nonprofit.

Pioneer earns 99% of its income through product sales and services. Pioneer’s eleven businesses bring in over $60 million in annual revenue, and enable them to serve 12,000 clients throughout Washington State. The simple explanation for their success: they operate as a business. 

Karen made no apologies in saying that one of the biggest lessons they’ve learned is that “financial performance must trump the mission.”

Since a significant part of Pioneer’s mission is to create training and employment opportunities for their clients, she said making decisions that cut jobs can be particularly difficult. But having a social mission alone isn’t enough to keep customers. The top priority for a social enterprise should be to listen to customers’ needs and adapt with the market. Otherwise, the risk is no longer being a social enterprise at all.

Sound business decisions, on the other hand, enable social enterprises to grow and evolve, and in doing so, create opportunities to further the organization’s social mission. 

As we think about using business to create social benefit, this is a key lesson to keep in mind:  by focusing on money before mission, social enterprises can actually have greater, longer-lasting social impact.  A lesson Pioneer has proven over the past 48 years.