Nonprofits and public companies answer to different audiences, but Jean-Pierre Conte argues the underlying discipline shouldn’t look all that different between the two. In a recent Forbes Business Council column, Conte, founder and managing partner of his family office, Lupine Crest Capital, draws a direct parallel between maximizing shareholder value in a corporation and maximizing impact at a nonprofit, arguing both require the same strategic focus and the same insistence on measurable outcomes.
That comparison runs against a common assumption that philanthropy operates by a looser set of standards than business, where good intentions substitute for results. Conte’s column pushes in the opposite direction, treating vague generosity as a weaker version of giving rather than a more virtuous one.
Focus Over Breadth
Conte’s first recommendation is to align giving with personal values and expertise rather than spreading contributions across many causes. A donor who understands a specific field, whether through professional experience or personal history, is better positioned to evaluate which organizations within that field are actually effective. Spreading capital broadly across unrelated causes, in his view, sacrifices the depth needed to make informed decisions.
This is where the business parallel becomes explicit. A company doesn’t invest in every available opportunity. It concentrates resources where it has genuine insight and can add real value, and Conte argues philanthropic giving should follow the same logic.
Diligence and Difficult Decisions
Conte also applies the language of investing directly to giving: due diligence is recommended on organizations, conducted the way an investor would evaluate any other investment before committing significant capital. That includes being willing to make difficult leadership decisions when an organization isn’t performing, something he has done through his own involvement with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity San Francisco.
Measurable Outcomes as the Common Thread
What ties Conte’s argument together across both business and philanthropy is a preference for measurable outcomes over stated intentions. A company reports results to shareholders on a defined schedule. Conte argues nonprofits and their donors should hold themselves to a comparable standard, tracking specific outcomes rather than describing a mission in broad terms and assuming the work is going well because the mission sounds worthwhile.
That standard, Conte argues, is what ultimately separates philanthropy that changes an organization’s trajectory from philanthropy that simply keeps its lights on.
Readers can find Conte’s complete column, along with more of his writing on philanthropy and business strategy, through his Forbes Business Council profile and personal website, both linked below.
