Doing Well & Doing Good: Hybrid Models for Social Impact

On March 20, 2012, I attended "Doing Well & Doing Good: Hybrid Models for Social Impact," an event co-sponsored by the Foundation Center – San Francisco, UpStart Bay Area,the Hub Bay Area, the Social Enterprise Alliance San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Here is the introduction to the webcast event provided […]

California Benefit Corporation and Flexible Purpose Corporation

California Governor Jerry Brown announced today that he signed into law AB 361 (Benefit corporations) and SB 201 (Flexible purpose corporations).  These laws will provide social entrepreneurs with two additional forms of legal entities to consider when creating their social enterprises and represents a tremendous step forward for businesses looking to factor social good into […]

The L3C – 3 Years Later

It has been a little over three years since Vermont became the first state in the country to recognize the low-profit limited liability company (L3C) as an official legal structure on April 30, 2008. Since then, other legal forms such as the Benefit Corporation and the Flexible Purpose Corporation (proposed in California) have started to […]

Pursuing Profit and Purpose: The Debate in California’s Statehouse and What it Means for Us

Emily and I just returned from a panel discussion at The HUB San Francisco on Pursuing Profit and Purpose: The Debate in California's Statehouse and What it Means for Us presented by The Aspen Institute and Omidyar Network.  The focus was on two bills going through California's legislature that could significantly change the social enterprise sector: […]

Incubating a Nonprofit Social Enterprise

  How can we incubate an innovative, profit-making nonprofit project? As covered in our last post, Starting a Self-Sustainable Nonprofit, it may be possible and advantageous to operate a sustainable, profit-making, charitable project as a nonprofit organization.  If this route is chosen, the leaders should ensure that the organizational, governance, and administrative structures are carefully […]

Tweets of the Week – July 16, 2010

Here are some of my favorite posts of the week: COF_: Healthy democracy needs philanthropy http://bit.ly/brEjpz consciousgovern: My new article just published by ProBono Australia: The True Role of the Board – How Governance has been Hijacked http://bit.ly/bu10qB charitylawyer: Ultra Vires Acts – http://bit.ly/9xjbMg http://fb.me/DQjlgxmQ Give2Asia: Just released our latest overview of Give2Asia's work and […]

Tweets of the Week – 6/11/10

Here are some of my favorite posts of the week: GTak: IRS – Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt & Gov't Entities Report of Recommendations - http://bit.ly/adOgIU plamb: What are the Critical Issues in International Grantmaking Raised at the Grantmakers Without Border.. http://bit.ly/dbkdNe Philanthropy: Key Senator Seeks Additional Information on Foundation Tax Proposal: Sen. Charles E. Grassley, senior […]

Tweets of the Week – 6/4/10

Here are some of my favorite posts of the week: GregLColvin: Final of my Sugarman lecture, political tax law reform after Citizens United: http://www.adlercolvin.com/attorneys/documents/sugarman.pdf BCorporation: In case you haven't heard – B Corps now legally exist in VT as well as MD! http://bit.ly/bZWMhB ajlovesya: Recap #ynpchat: The Importance of Board Service for Young Nonprofit Professionals […]

Maryland’s Benefit Corporation

On April 13, 2010, Maryland became the first state to recognize a new corporate form called a “benefit corporation” (not to be confused with a “Certified B Corporation”) when Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law, Senate Bill 690, which allows corporations to pursue socially responsible purposes in addition to profits. As Andrea Cohen, Public Policy […]