Capitalism is often deemed synonymous with the dog eat dog, survival of the fittest mentality. At DAO we believe that capitalism and compassion are not diametrically opposite. In fact, we believe that making profits is essential to creating long term, sustainable improvements in people’s lives.
Far too many well-meaning organizations apply and reapply every year for grants and handouts from the government and funders of charitable ventures. As long as the free money keeps coming, these organizations continue to provide services to those who need it most, even jobs. As wonderful and necessary as many of these programs are, they cannot provide long lasting remedies for social problems. In fact, far too often the negative, unintended side effect of these programs is recipient dependency. Once the funds are cut off, the organizations are rendered ineffective.
This is why the founders of DAO have developed our unique program that blends the benefits of charitable efforts with sustainable job creation and training. In 2010, DAO launched the DAO Career Training Institute (CTI), an Indiana nonprofit organization. CTI has been largely grant funded by Community Action of Greater Indianapolis (CAGI) and DAO during its first year. Since launching, CTI has received its accreditation from the US Department of Labor and the Veterans Administration and in 2011 will launch a program creating an accessible workshop for combat disabled veterans, designed to provide meaningful work for vets with amputations or other severe injuries. Without grant funding, CTI could not exist. So by no means do we hate nonprofits. We love our nonprofit partners.
If CTI uses grant money to provide training to people with long term unemployment but there are no jobs available for the graduates, it seems a waste of money. That’s where DAO steps up to the plate. DAO is not a nonprofit. It is a green social enterprise designed to make a profit then uses those profits to buy machinery, obtain accounts and create jobs. This way, DAO can continue to hire CTI graduates who are almost all at or below poverty guidelines.
What is truly amazing is that we create those jobs from people’s trash – from appliances, electronics, computers, cardboard, plastics, batteries and so much more that would otherwise have been buried in a landfill. If DAO simply produced a product, it might create jobs but would be in competition with existing businesses. In other words, it would simply take jobs from somewhere or someone else and transplant them to a new market competitor. Instead, DAO creates jobs that otherwise did not previously exist. That is the key.
Compassion and capitalism thrive hand in hand at DAO. Capitalism is central to American democracy. Compassion is central to our identities as Americans. At DAO, these concepts define us and provide direction to our many dedicated employees and volunteers.