The dividing line between profit seeking companies and socially conscious organizations is not as clear as it once was. Many of today’s most vibrant companies straddle the increasingly blurred boundary between social activism and success in the marketplace. Thanks To My Teacher, LLC is firmly rooted in a dynamic new wave of social entrepreneurism.

Our choice to forgo charitable status and to characterize Thanks To My Teacher as a self-sustaining entity was based on three core beliefs:

1.  We believe there is a gratifying integrity to an endeavor that, by the very nature of its good work, can be self-sustaining. Self-sustainability liberates us from the never-ending search for grants and charitable support that is a resource-devouring burden for many not-for-profit entities.

2.  Not having a Board of Directors, as required under 501(c)3 status, allows us to be far more nimble when making business decisions. In the quicksilver world of the Internet and social media, where we will operate, such agility is a strategic and tactical advantage.

3.  We see no inherent friction between doing good and doing well. We believe that those who manage companies doing socially valuable work should be fairly compensated for their work, as, indeed, managers of charitable organizations frequently are. Tying manager compensation to success in the marketplace rather than to success at grant writing not only introduces an element of motivation to our core mission, it helps keep our business model transparent and straightforward.

In our socially-motivated/self-sustaining stance, we see Thanks To My Teacher as being representative of a new paradigm for the pro-active: social entrepreneurism.

J. Gregory Dees at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business captures the essence of this burgeoning movement:

"The idea of social entrepreneurship has struck a responsive chord. It is a phrase well suited to our times. It combines the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination commonly associated with, for instance, the high-tech pioneers of Silicon Valley. The time is certainly ripe for entrepreneurial approaches to social problems. Many governmental and philanthropic efforts have fallen far short of our expectations. Major social sector institutions are often viewed as inefficient, ineffective, and unresponsive. Social entrepreneurs are needed to develop new models for a new century."

Thanks To My Teacher, LLC embraces this new model of making living as you make a difference.

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