Interesting New York Times article today on Pura Vida and more importantly addressing the question: for-profit or nonprofit?

The article seems to emphasize the issue of financing that nonprofit ventures face and does not focus on the issue that I believe really drives the to-be or not-to-be question about being a nonprofit.  That is if neither the government nor the for-profit market has demand or incentive to pursue the mission (i.e. there's not enough something in it for either sector).

In the case of Pura Vida, there certainly are plenty of coffee distributors, not as many of this ilk when Pura Vida kicked off.  But there were few if any venues for the beneficiaries (kids) to have many opportunities and neither "market" was interested.  Hence, Pura Vida.  This is the real story -- an unresponsive market.  Financing is a means not an end.