By Jim Epstein and Alicia Epstein Korten As an investment advisor and member of the Gamble family that founded Procter & Gamble, I (Jim) am often asked to sit on nonprofit boards. I have grown uncomfortable with the term not-for-profit to describe these organizations, which often embrace business principles in their operations. For example, DC [...]

Capitalism with Purpose, not Profit at its Center By Andrew Kassoy The Occupy Wall Street movement has captured a great deal of attention as it spreads beyond New York City to major cities across the globe.  While some critique the protests as diffuse in message or lacking in substance, it is clear that the movement [...]

By Jay Coen Gilbert   Governor Jerry Brown heard the shouts from his congregation of business leaders and signed California benefit corporation legislation into law late Sunday night. More than 200 individual businesses (like Patagonia and Revolution Foods), a dozen business associations from the mainstream (Silicon Valley Leadership Group) to the green team (U.S. Green Building Council), [...]

Innov8Social‘s Neetal Parekh paid a visit to California’s Capital last week to hear about Benefit Corporation Legislation from AB 361 presentor California State Assemblymember Huffman, and Wendel Rosen attorney and AB 361 advocate Donald Simon. Watch her videos and hear from the sources about the legislation, where it is in the process, why it’s important, [...]

By Risa De Ferrari, Green Chamber of Commerce Certified Benefit Corporations and B Corps are a new classification of business joining the ranks of certifications such as: sole proprietorships, standard incorporations (C Corps or S Corps), and limited liability corporations (LLCs) to name a few.  Benefit Corporations are unique in that they build upon the [...]

by Shreya Barot, American Sustainable Business Council The American democratic principles of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” are now being endangered by an overreaching Supreme Court ruling – Citizens United v. FEC. The Story of Citizens United, by the famous maker of The Story of Stuff, illustrates beautifully how the [...]

by Melinda Cheel, RSF Social Finance RSF is committed to transforming the way the world works with money. Transformation of our economic system is multifaceted and complex so we look to our values to inform our actions for creating such change. We value interdependence and believe that as transformation takes place, economic success will be [...]

An Interview with Michael Shuman, Research Director of Cutting Edge Capital   Clearly, we support Benefit Corps, but it’s always helpful to get an objective view. We interview Michael Shuman to get an economist’s take on why Benefit Corporations matter.     How will Benefit Corporations affect the market? It increases market efficiency. It is [...]

by Shannon Downey, Pivotal Production There is a movement happening in the United States right now and Illinois is missing out. Until recently, there were two business models available when creating a business entity in Illinois, non-profit and for-profit.  In August 2009, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill affording Illinois businesses a third option.  The L3C model [...]