Advertising directly on your site

This includes placing ads in sidebars, interstitials (separate Web pages that

display just before an expected content page appears), and pop-ups.

The main bone of contention here — of concern primarily for nonprofit social

entrepreneurs — is whether trying to make money by such commercial

means is a good idea. Would including direct advertising on your site deflect

attention from the messages you’re trying to convey? Would such advertising

reduce the sense of urgency and seriousness of your enterprise’s mission? Is

that mission too important, too dignified, to be keep company with anything

commercial? Or should you accept the consequences of advertising, justify-

ing it as a necessary evil that comes with bringing in badly needed money to

run the enterprise and succeed at your mission? We can’t answer this ques-

tion for you, but you should certainly think about it.

There is also the touchy matter of your appearing to endorse the goods and

services advertised. That could be risky, depending on the good or service

being advertised. For example, if your social enterprise is devoted to promot-

ing improved nutrition for children, and you inadvertently accept advertising

from a company that produces an energy drink that causes dangerous eleva-

tions in heart rate, you’re sending a mixed message to your visitors. An enter-

prise that animal lovers have established to save the grizzly bears of the Rocky

Mountains should definitely avoid advertisements aimed at promoting the sale

of hunting guns and ammunition — even if bear hunters are also interested in

such a project (because its success should give them more grizzlies to hunt).

Acknowledgment on your site

This is public acknowledgment on your site of commercial sources of ser-

vices and equipment purchased by your enterprise.

Acknowledgment, if reasonably subtle, probably avoids most of the conse-

quences associated with direct advertising. But then, because of low vis-

ibility, the commercial enterprise you’re acknowledging probably receives

a lower return on its money compared with direct advertising, such as a

pop-up or interstitial. Because of this possibility, that commercial enterprise

will probably offer a smaller fee to your social enterprise for acknowledging it

than it would if you accepted its advertising.

Put simply, you probably won’t make as much money on an acknowledgment

as you would on an ad.

Advertising on other Web sites

Here you purchase ads on other sites in order to promote your enterprise.

Buying advertising space on another Web site is a calculated chance at suc-

ceeding in drawing more hits on your own site. This is spending money to

make money, and you can think of it as a sort of investment