A lot of public discussion has recently focused around pro-social organizations and social venture organizations that seek to maximize social value while also making a profit. Some people have tended to group these organizations in with nonprofits...creating an expanded independent sector (known as "the social sector," or "the social economy.") However, I've always been a bit uncertain as to the usefulness of such an expanded and broad depiction of the sector.
Now
For some reason I was doing random Google searches yesterday, and one of my queries was "the fourth sector." In my mind, I had imagined that a search for the fourth sector would turn up a lot of information on media and broadcasting. (And, a few items on media as a fourth sector of society did result). However, unbeknownst to me, there actually is an emerging fourth sector of the economy (non-media related) that is becoming rather established....
In come "the for-benefit sector."
According to the website FourthSector.com:
Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the public (government), private (business), and social (non-profit/non-governmental) sectors have been blurring, while a Fourth Sector of organization has been emerging. The archetypal Fourth Sector model is sometimes referred to as a For-Benefit organization, and the sector itself is also referred to as the For-Benefit Sector. There are a wide variety of other Fourth Sector models and approaches, bearing different names and emphasizing or embodying different aspects of the For-Benefit model.
(They also mention that the Aspen Institute will release a concept paper on this emerging sector in March 2008.)
From what I've read about the sector so far, I'm really intrigued about the concept of a fourth (for benefit) sector. I think that it can add great value to society....kind of a hybrid between nonprofit and for-profit. However, the only thing that gets me is that the sector has been defined using a pro-social spin, while the nonprofit sector continues to be defined in terms of what is in not, and other sectors continue to define themselves by what they are (e.g. FORprofit, FORbenefit......). I almost think that the nonprofit sector should do a rebranding campaign, and re-emerge as the FORvalue sector.
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