Grupo Islita: Is Financial Sustainability Better Secured by Becoming a Non-profit Organisation or a For-profit Enterprise?

Abstract This article presents a teaching case on a non-profit organisation that serves the base of the pyramid populations in Costa Rica. The organisation needs to determine whether its financial sustainability is better secured by increasing its services or by seeking funds from the donor market. The case presents three teaching goals. First, participants will learn the pros and cons of gaining financial resources as a non-profit organisation or as a business with significant social and environmental impacts. Second, participants will understand how an organisation can integrate poor communities into its core business. Finally, participants will reflect on the challenges that a management team faces when selling a socially oriented, sustainability-driven hotel service that is located in a high poverty area to upscale tourists or donors.