Social entrepreneurs often do not fit neatly within the traditional nonprofit or for-profit legal categories. Instead they primarily focus on mission and may require different forms of capital. This means the law must catch up to reflect this growing trend. In the past few years, we’ve seen various legal innovations such as the creation of alternative for-profit legal structures to distinguish socially-responsible businesses (in addition to B Corp certification for existing businesses). Social entrepreneurs are also increasingly interested in accessing capital through crowdfunding, which soon will include the possibility of receiving equity contributions from the public. Come hear from Ashoka Fellows, Rafael Alvarez who helped others replicate his non-profit “subsidiary” model to scale his organization, and Sasa Vucinic who plans to launch IndieVoices, a crowdfunding platform to direct patient capital to independent media projects around the world. The session panelists will also engage in a provocative discussion regarding the future of social enterprise law, how social entrepreneurs can best utilize their lawyer as a co-creator, and the limits of pro bono legal services.
