R. Balasubramaniam
Founder, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement and GRAAM
Looking back: One strong trend is the pressure on civil society organisations to perform. There has been an enormous need for organisations to become effective and efficient, both in the way we mobilise resources and the way we deploy them. Compliance and accountability requirements have grown considerably.
In order to become more efficient and effective, organisations in the social sector have started experimenting with technology and automation as well as with concepts such as systems thinking and design thinking. The sector has started getting access to more talent from the corporate sector, which did not previously engage with the social sector–this has brought in skills and knowledge that the sector can put to good use.
Lastly, we have seen a shift from being output driven to being more focused on outcomes.
Looking ahead: My hope is that the civil society sector disappears and enables the emergence of a new sector. The social sector emerged in response to the inability of governments and the private sector to solve social problems. Civil society organisations have been traditionally donation-dependent, with many of us over the last 20 years creating a model that combines donations with revenue generation to yield social benefit. But I don’t think even this is sustainable.
I’m looking at a fourth sector which will deliver social benefit exclusively through earnings rather than by donation. If you look at the narrative around the world, the current economic order is failing: for-profit behaviour has taken away everything that can be sustainable. Civil society alone cannot solve the world’s problems today. We have to metamorphose into a new economic order where we move from ‘for-profit’ to ‘for-benefit’. We need a new sector which draws the DNA from the government sector, the efficiencies of the corporate sector and the social conviction and commitment of the civil society sector. It will look at revenue generation not as evil but as necessary to ensure benefit to all stakeholders. Whether we like it or not, we will have to move towards this.