Four years after Delaware first enacted its Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) statute, the state has taken another step forward in advancing legal entity forms for social enterprises. In August 2018, Delaware added a new legal entity to its code: the Public Benefit Limited Liability Company, or PBLLC. ...›
In April 2018, the Delaware State Bar Association’s Corporate Law Section approved an amendment to the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act that allows for the formation of public benefit limited liability companies (PBLLCs). The proposed new PBLLC statute – Subchapter XII of Chapter 18, Title 6 of the Delaware Code (PDF) – closely tracks the Delaware public ...›
TrustLaw, in partnership with law firm Tilleke & Gibbins, the British Council, and United Nations ESCAP launched the ASEAN Social Enterprise Structuring Guide, covering legal structures available in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. As social entrepreneurship continues to blossom around the world, especially in Southeast Asia, governments in the region ...›
There continues to be a lot of press around B Corps—not surprising given the marketing expertise of the B Lab founding team and the staff that it has hired. More importantly, the B Corp movement has been embraced by an increasingly wide audience. It is no longer solely the purview of socially and progressively minded liberals, willing or able to sacrifice returns for positive impact. It is now employed by publicly traded ...›
When people ask which impact investors inspire us, one team consistently rises to the top: Omidyar Network. Since its founding 14 years ago, Omidyar Network has led a small revolution in the impact investing and philanthropic community. Not only has it dedicated over $1 billion to initiatives working to solve some of the world’s greatest problems, it has redefined how the world thinks about capitalizing these initiatives. ...›
MoFo Impact recently collaborated with Obvious Ventures and their World Positive publication on a three-part series on corporate form. Check out all three pieces: "A Startup Cheat Sheet for the Baffling World of Company Structures"; "C-Corps, LLCs, PBCs, and All That Jazz"; and "To B Corp or Not to B Corp?" ...›
Suz Mac Cormac recently spoke to socially-minded entrepreneurs at an Impact.tech event. She presented ways to embed mission into social enterprises through the use of corporate forms. ...›
A team of London-based Morrison & Foerster attorneys assisted Thomson Reuters Foundation and UnLtd, the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK, with developing the “UK Social Venture Structuring Guide.” The interactive guide was built to help social entrepreneurs in the UK determine the best legal structure for their social venture. Through ...›
1. A “B Corporation” is Not a New Corporate Form A “B Corporation” or “B Corp” is a certification mark – like a “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval or “LEED” certification. B Labs has done a very good job of creating a framework for companies to evaluate their business and operations on ESG factors and to then receive a score or ranking. ...›
Traditionally, corporate decision-making has been driven by the singular goal of maximizing shareholder value. Increasingly, however, businesses seek to pursue a social or environmental mission alongside profit. Such so-called “social enterprises” may find that fiduciary duties associated with the traditional corporate form limit the corporation’s ability to achieve mission. Accordingly, mission-oriented for-profit entities may consider ...›