The proposal of an Undersector, a sector that exists beyond and outside of the three that are recognized today, begs a question of origins. What are the histories and historiography of the Undersector? If the state, private, and charitable sectors describe most, if not all of the geography of possession and control today, how is it that we may even sense there’s something else, another realm? There are some clues in the origins of Western law and political economy. Today’s sectors have largely been defined…Continue Reading “Origin Stories – Pulling on the Thread of Commoning”

Mission Motivation and Why It Matters The nonprofit sector is home to a staggering diversity of missions and purposes, but there are just two archetypal origins that inspire mission, or mission motivations. Missions are either primarily motivated by external or internal forces to the individual or group defining the mission. The category your mission falls into may help explain some of the inequities in funding you encounter as well as the manner in which you argue impact, build a resource model, think about scale, and…Continue Reading “The Inequities of Doing Good”