In the rise of technology firms and innovation in Silicon Valley, there is one thing that consistently drives these companies. These companies want to change the world with their product, but they want to make money, through differentiation. What appears different and innovative about us that would make you spend the extra money. While there may have been problems with connectivity, networking at the turn of the century, the solutions were brought upon by competitively driven businesses. Blackberry was nearly put out of business by the likes of Apple. While the effort was to change the way business is done, success and making money was the driving force, and therefore Blackberry was left in the dust.

In my last couple weeks at United Way of LaPorte County, I was exposed to the opposite of that. While on the surface, it’s easy to understand the difference between for-profits and non-profits, this exposure taught me the foundational differences between the two.

In three-pronged approach, UWLPC wants to help in the areas of income, health, and education. UWLPC isn’t the only group trying to solve these problems in LaPorte County. This is a good thing but there can be setbacks. If certain people are using both UWLPC as well as another service, such as a shelter or a counseling center, they may receive some of the same information and it may be inefficient to the user. Thus, collaboration is necessary. I was able to be a part of a couple of meetings that involved ways to unify efforts to help house the homeless, employ the unemployed, etc. In the for-profit world, there is little to no collaboration as it is all about the success of your brand. While in the non-profit world brand success is important, it is more important to solve the issues. Getting exposed to this help me really understand foundational differences between the for-profit and non-profit industry.