Transcript of Remarks of Robert Egger, Founder and President,
DC Central Kitchen
The Phoenix Project’s
“Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship in Virginia” Luncheon
July 25, 2007
Falls Church, Virginia
First of all, I agree with everything he [Governor Mark Warner] said. My name is Robert Egger. I am the director of the DC Central Kitchen. We have our own revenue generating project that we are about to launch, a new streetcar business on the streets of Washington, DC. I am thrilled to talk about the big picture. Virginia, like every state in America, is rich beyond measure. Rich, rich, rich, but while historically we look at money, you are also rich in the fact that 90% of the college freshmen at every single university in the great Commonwealth have done community service. By the time they are 23 and graduate, most will have 10 years of engagement under their belt, and they are roaring out of these universities with degrees ready to tackle the work of the nonprofit sector.
Social entrepreneurship isn’t just nonprofits making money. That is certainly part of it, but I guarantee one of the most exciting avenues is seeing for-profits recognizing that there is a connection between purpose and profit; that you can make a significant return on investment for your investors while you also do really profoundly good things for your community. So you’ve got a lot to work with here.
I guarantee you, brothers and sisters—we talked a little bit earlier about Baby Boomers—80 million people are about to get older. The richest, freest, most educated generation on the history of the planet is about to get old, and they have also come roaring into service. They want to take this deep well of life experience and translate that into something profound for their community.
The problem we face, and I think it is easily overcome, is our understanding of this whole idea of nonprofit, for-profit, .com, .org; everything has to be one of the other. What social entrepreneurs say is there is something in the middle. There is a new “profit” and, in effect, it is both money and community at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive. There is so much we can do if we just divorce ourselves of this notion that nonprofits do good deeds, that they are charity.
One-tenth of the economy of America, one tenth of the economy of this state, one-tenth of the workforce is wrapped up in some way, shape or form with nonprofits. That represents $1.4 trillion a year. That’s the gross national product of India. For heaven’s sakes, if the nonprofit sector was a country, we would have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and yet we don’t have really a say in any town’s budget process. We’re divorced. We sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens. That’s got to change. It’s a huge economic engine. It’s a stimulator for the economy. It has to be quickly revealed to be more than just good deeds, and there are two things you can do today to help this happen. One is to support the Phoenix Project. This is an amazing avenue and an amazing program. It deserves your undying support.
Secondly, major media outlets have got to cover this on a regular basis. We have a $1.4 trillion sector and you cannot find in any newspaper regular in-depth coverage of what we do—no deep analysis. People are investing millions of dollars every day and they don’t have the first place to go to get a real analytical view of who is good, who is bad. Newspapers have full-time people covering restaurants. The Washington Post, God bless them, has two full-time people doing reviews of restaurants. They have two full-time people doing reviews of movies. Not one person or one page dedicated to what we do. That’s got to change. That’s the place to start.
Thank you very much.
[End of Transcript]