Businesses Try to Make Money and Save the World

Short Description
fabric of society wants us to make money on one side. and do good with it on the other. What we’re saying. is: What if we did both things at once?” …

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Content
May 6, 2007
Businesses Try to
Make Money and
Save the World
By STEPHANIE STROM
ALTRUSHARE SECURITIES is a brokerage firm,
engaged in the sort of things you might expect of a
Wall Street outfit, like buying and selling stock, and
providing research on companies. Unlike its peers,
however, the firm is majority-owned by two charities
that each control about one-third of it.
So is it a for-profit business? Or a nonprofit fundraising
machine?
In fact, like hundreds of new businesses starting up
around the country, it is both. Altrushare is an
example of the emerging convergence of for-profit
money-making and nonprofit mission.
The practice is even creeping into corporate
bluebloods like General Electric, whose $12 billion
Ecomagination business promotes its products’
minimal environmental impact as well as their
positive impact on the bottom line.
“We’re a for-profit institutional brokerage, and we
have to compete on execution and commissions and
do so with the same technology and talent you would
expect from a top-tier firm,” said Peter Drasher, a
founder of Altrushare, which is based in Bridgeport,
Conn. “What makes us different is our nonprofit
ownership and our mission, which…