Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is the common good. They use the methods and disciplines of business and the power of the marketplace to advance their social, environmental and human justice agendas. … In its early days, the social enterprise movement was identified mainly with nonprofits that used business models and earned income strategies to pursue their mission. Today, it also encompasses for-profits whose driving purpose is social. Mission is primary and fundamental; organizational form is a strategic question of what will best advance the social mission. – Social Enterprise Alliance
Entrepreneurs with social goals must consider many factors in determining the appropriate structure – whether it involves a nonprofit organization, a for-profit entity (including the so-called hybrid entities—B corporations, benefit corporations, flexible purpose corporations, and L3Cs), or both. Understanding the different forms and utilizing the appropriate ones may be critical in the implementation of the social/business plan.
Increasingly, for-profit corporations are expanding their goals beyond profit-maximization and pursuing social or charitable goals. For owners of some of these corporations whose sole focus becomes a charitable purpose, conversion into a nonprofit organization can provide new sources of financial and social capital. However, whether a corporation should convert...
The 2016 Wharton Social Impact Conference in San Francisco took place on December 13, and I had the pleasure of catching a couple of the sessions during the day. Funding Models for Maximizing Impact Moderator Dr. Amara Enyia noted the Rockefeller Foundation’s identification of a $2.5 trillion annual funding gap to...
SOCAP16, this year’s iteration of the premier social capital markets (SOCAP) conference hosted in San Francisco each year, reflected a growing maturity in the fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing. The discussions emphasized the need for inclusion of those most impacted by the problems social entrepreneurs are trying to solve. They recognized the...
The Nonprofit Law Blog has been writing about SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) since 2010, and I am thrilled to be attending and covering the annual SOCAP conference this year. SOCAP16 is gathering impact investors, social entrepreneurs, foundations, corporations, global nonprofits, and other valuable strangers all contributing to a vibrant...
The American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Section is holding its 2016 Annual Meeting in Boston on September 8-10. I’m looking forward to meeting with my colleagues in the Nonprofit Organizations Committee, attending the various programs, and expressing my appreciation as one of the recipients of the Committee’s Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer...
Economic development may not immediately come to mind as an activity that furthers a charitable purpose, but it doesn’t take long to think of circumstances where helping a depressed community in its economic development can help in the relief of poverty and distress, and in the combat of community deterioration,...
Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced the social good goals of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the joint pledge he made with his wife Priscilla Chan to contribute 99 percent of their Facebook shares (currently valued at about $45 billion) to the Initiative, which is structured as a limited liability...
Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg published a touching letter written to his week-old daughter Max which announced the beginning of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The Initiative’s mission focuses on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality. And the statement that raised all the attention: We will give 99% of our Facebook shares...
The social purpose corporation is one of two “hybrid” corporate forms in California that provide alternative business entity options to entrepreneurs who want to combine profitability with broader social and environmental objectives (the other is the benefit corporation). Formerly known as the flexible purpose corporation, the social purpose corporation...
Many key players in the social enterprise / impact investing space throughout the world converged in San Francisco this week for SOCAP15 (yup, that’s John Legend). I’ve been writing and tweeting about SOCAP since 2010, and I am thrilled to be attending this year. Also, a quick disclosure that some of the entities represented are...