Introduction

If you’re ever in Stockholm, Sweden you should visit the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet in Swedish). It is one of Stockholm’s most popular tourist attractions and one of the most popular museums in Europe. The museum was built for the sole purpose of displaying the reconstructed warship Vasa and educating the public about Swedish life in the 1600s and the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Vasa (Vasa Museum, 2016). That story serves nicely as a metaphor for understanding the finances of social purpose organizations. The Vasa was a wooden warship, built during the 30 Years War of 1618– 1648 after Sweden lost a dozen ships and needed new vessels to support King Gustav II Adolph’s military campaign in the Baltic. The Vasa was the largest ship in the history of the Swedish fleet, with an extra cannon deck that the king himself had ordered during its construction. On August 10, 1628 the Vasa left her mooring at the royal palace for the first time, with 130 crewman and wives on board (for the celebration). It sailed some 1300 meters out toward the sea before a gust of wind caused it to heel over to its port (left) side. Water poured through the open cannon ports and the ship sank in the 32 meters deep channel of Stockholm harbor; 53 lives were lost. Hearings were held following the disaster but no precise cause was found and no one was held accountable. It was not until 1961 that the Vasa was successfully salvaged. The salinity of the water and the shelter of the harbor had preserved its remains to a remarkable extent (Fairley, 2016). The ship was reconstructed over time and the Vasa Museum built around it, adjacent to the harbor (Vasa Museum, 2016).