In this article, Joseph Agoada discusses a very interesting source of innovation and breakthrough business ideas. Necessity is the mother of innovation and nonprofits and social impact organizations are perpetually in “necessity” which forces them to come up with “social innovation” to find a solution.

Till now, we have thought of dealing with the social innovation of nonprofits with charity and donations. But now, it’s time to think of our corporate strategy in terms of forming partnership with these nonprofit organizations and to think of “social innovation” as an business opportunity. We need to move away from charity to turning social innovation into a profitable venture through social impact investment.

NGOs and non-profit organizations innovate with practical solutions to the problems they face. They are aware of ground realities, have in-depth knowledge and also know the solution to the problem. As such, they are a great resource for organizations to turn social innovation into profitable ventures to solve world’s tough problems through new innovative partnerships between the public and private sector. This is what Vodafone did with M-Pesa , it’s money transfer service through mobile in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.