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Bill Kelly Esq
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President
Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future
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Director
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
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Director
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
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Director
Governance Institute
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Director
International Senior Lawyers Project
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Thoughts
Perhaps the biggest challenge that citizen organizations face is the challenge of stepping up to a scale and efficiency that really makes a difference for the poor instead of just making the participants feel good about themselves. The founder of one of the nonprofits with whom I have worked over the years was wont to say that a typical non-profit is like an oyster, concentrating all of its energies on polishing its pearl. Society is stuck in too many ways for citizen organizations to be satisfied polishing a few pearls. Instead, they need, with breakthrough ideas and strategies, to reach for greater impact, much as the best business entrepreneurs have done for 200 years. For non-profits who provide affordable rental housing for seniors, low-wage families, and the formerly homeless, that means bringing businesslike principles and skills to their operations--negotiating favorable contracts with builders, controlling borrowing costs, saving on utility bills, and the like. Sometimes the results are hard to capture in sound bites, but they are what really make a difference in the lives of poor people.
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