Reading Leaving Microsoft to Change the World changed the way I give. I now look for more direct impact opportunities and organizations that facilitate them.  I’m more optimistic about the real possibility for change in developing economies. I’m more focused on causes, campaigns and donations that make a damn of difference. Less hoopla, more impact.

Unlike Three Cups of Tea, which split its focus between Greg Mortenson’s work to bring education and opportunity to backwater areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the region’s geopolitical history, Wood’s book is a terrific guide to launching an enterprise. He applies lessons learned from business school and Microsoft to Room to Read, a nonprofit organization, “I knew from day one that I had to be a salesperson as focused on cash inflow as I was on program delivery. It was logical that [understanding the importance of capital] would help me in my business career…but this focus was an even bigger competitive advantage in the charity world.”

I’ve applied many of the tactics and ideas that Wood uses–from using every email to communicate impact to research objectives to negotiating and fundraising strategies–to my own life and work in the past two weeks. Wood’s story is not glamorous (he talks about the tradeoffs between work and relationships and hesitantly accepts that he will be a renter–not a homeowner–for a long time to come), which makes it all the more useful and inspiring.

We can do more good and do it more quickly with a for-profit model.

Nonprofits aren’t bad, their model just has some flaws. A nonprofit has two tasks: to serve its cause or constituents and to raise money. A for-profit’s only task is to satisfy its stakeholders. The by-product of doing this well is making money.

A nonprofit doesn’t get to the ‘good’ fast enough. There’s a lot of preparation to get started on fighting the cause or delivering services. Nonprofits paid our firm to tell them how and where to raise money. They paid us to do the research and write the proposals. But they weren’t off the hook for time. They still needed to spend time with us on their programs, budgets and contacts. They still needed to woo grant-makers, find new ways to grab donors’ attention and write follow-up reports. All this time took them away from their mission and the cause they were fighting.

Think of a guy who decides to take up running. He spends the first weekend researching and shopping for running shoes. The second weekend buying running shorts, the third weekend mapping the perfect route. On the fourth weekend he goes (but only if it doesn’t rain). That’s how I see the nonprofit survival model.

Compare this to the guy who decides to take up running. He grabs the closest pair of shorts that he probably slept in, laces up the shoes he has lying around and walks out his front door. He’ll move his legs like runners do and figure the rest out from there. That’s how I see for-profit start-ups. Able to get to the mission quickly and willing to course correct along the way.

Which runner will be stronger, quicker and more knowledgeable about his activity in six weeks? I’m backing the guy who spends six weeks running instead of three.

I’m open to other ideas. Tell me what you think in the comments or email me, olivia[at]causecapitalism.com.

In March 2009 Amy Cowin raised $32,000 through a personal fundraising page to pay for an operation to remove one of her kidneys and donate it to her sister Jessica. This is not Amy and Jessica’s story. It’s the story of GiveForward.org–the idea and technology that enabled this operation and hundreds of others like it.

I spoke with Desiree Vargas, co-founder and president of GiveForward, an online platform that provides free fundraising pages to individuals and non-profits to raise money for loved ones’ medical treatments, volunteer service projects, community initiatives or charitable sporting events. Vargas runs GiveForward with her co-founder Ethan Austin and crew of interns.

Since its launch in August 2008, GiveForward has helped more than 5,000 individuals raise more than $660,000 and has earned praise from the Chicago Tribune as ”the future of medical fundraising in the Internet Age.”

In our conversation Vargas talks about the voice that woke her up at 1 a.m. telling her to “Get Started,” inexpensive resources for getting your startup off the ground and what she does with failure.  Click the player to listen.

Key points from our conversation:

• After Hurricane Katrina Vargas wanted to directly donate to affected individuals. She was frustrated that instead, her donation needed to be processed through a larger organization where overhead and administrative costs would dilute it. A year later, she was thinking about how she could raise the money for a different business idea, when the thought of raising capital from friends and family came to her. She conceptualized this as an online platform that would enable people to connect on a individual basis to raise and donate money.
• Vargas threw a handful of mini-launch parties around the country to raise money from friends, usually in $10-$20 increments, to seed GiveForward. Each party raised $1,000-$1,500.
• Many universities have resource centers in their law or business schools that offer free or low-cost legal and business advice to entrepreneurs. Vargas used Northwestern University’s Small Business Opportunity Center to solicit feedback on her business plan and to legally establish the company.
• GiveForward charges a 3% transaction fee, which doesn’t cover Vargas or Austin’s salaries (like most entrepreneurs with young businesses, they pick up additional work) but does cover the company’s minimal operating expenses. 3% is lower than the 5-15% charged by similar sites.
• After the success of people like Amy and Jessica Cowin, medical fundraising on GiveForward has grown exponentially. It now comprises 70% of the site’s fundraising pages, and medical fundraising drives 80% of new users and donations.
• From a mentor, Vargas learned to talk about her idea as much as possible. By doing so, you’ll glean feedback, ideas, contacts and publicity for your business. Outside of high-tech, stealth-mode is overrated.
• Look at failure as an opportunity to learn. In GiveForward’s first months, some donations took too long to go out and sometimes the donate button wouldn’t work. Austin in particular was passionate about seeing these snafus as a means to engage and win-over the customer.
• Be flexible. GiveForward’s original mission had nothing to do with medical fundraising, but this is what people came for and needed. Now, GiveForward can target this sector.
• Give-Forward aims to be ‘the eBay of giving’–the preeminent destination to fundraise for–and fund–personal and non-personal causes.