Friday, January 24, 2014

Proof that Social Enterprise Can Succeed as It Fails - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly

Proof that Social Enterprise Can Succeed as It Fails - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: Bixi has been something of a poster child for social enterprise. It is a nonprofit with local public backing pursuing a global social agenda through a business enterprise. This nonprofit is behind the bike-sharing programs in New York City, Melbourne, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, and many other cities. It successfully helped to establish roots for bike sharing, with 37,000 bikes in use around the world, but now it has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Bixi owes Montreal about $40 million in loans, which the city is now calling in, and it is estimated that the nonprofit owes its suppliers about $9 million. Still, although the organization has run into a wall, the programs it engendered will not.

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