How can we measure our profit margin for an investment in social innovation. There isn't one. What I find is that there is a passion margin. When you get to the bottom line of an income statement for an organization like common hope, the hope should be for passion. If we give people an opportunity to dream, we have seen them come alive and share in the unique abilities that all living things have, a passion to grow.
If resources can be shared across productive systems like a health clinic, a library, an early learning center, educational psychology, a family guidance center, clean and safe community facilities, educators, and dreams, we have seen that return on passion keeps growing. The key market indicators are not in dollars, but graduation rates, teen sexual patience rates, drop in rates, preventative health care usage, and economic stability rates.
When we walked around the barrios of Guatemala we were greeted almost every time. We were acknowledged with every passing, we were treated to connection, only briefly but consistently. The scariest folks in Guatemala were not the ragged and impoverished looking people, it was the unknown. The fear of the consequences and desperation that can come from economic poverty. There is a quiet and humble tranquility that flows through the streets of Guatemala. That is a natural resource that has been suppressed, disrupted, and barried in classism.
There is conflict and politics like in every system. It is not capitalism that destroyed this region. I doubt communism could create less suffering. I do think the fear of equality keeps others from sharing. It might be greed and corruption that feeds the fear of equality. There is a term I rarely hear used in social systems, stingy. There are cultures that are stingy in the human race. Those who are stingy have not been loved enough to know that sharing often results in bounty.
Sharing is not an economically sound strategy for gaining power, and sharing power is rarely admired. I could not have dreamed up this opportunity had I not been able to trust that I could share responsibility with this team. And now, we share in the bounty. We look at each other and realize we have extended our family. We have drilled for love and found it. We have mined for passion and are exporting it. We found a compassion forrest and are harvesting its fruit. We have finalized our sharing statements and have your return on investment, our passion margin. Our dividends are as high as ever, in the currency of gratitude. You are valued!
Buen Provecho,
Ron
