He Makes Me Smile

Hat tip to the Freakonomics blog for introducing me to Brian Mullaney, founder of the Smile Train and for leading with this kick-ass quote:

Most charities don’t see themselves as a business. … [They] can be terribly managed, pay people poorly, and yet never go out of business. They’re almost like churches; people say, “That’s O.K., because their hearts are in the right place.” At Smile Train, we pay people market-rate salaries and if they’re really good, we give them a bonus, and if they’re not, we fire them — we don’t care where their heart is; it can go somewhere else.

Correcting facial disfigurements in poor children, and rigorously employing the best technical and business methods available to do so? This cut-throat capitalist approves.