Social entrepreneurs set their eyes on radically improving the world. Florence Nightingale, a 19th-century pioneer of healthcare reform and the modern nursing practice, is an often-cited example. But unlike Nightingale, social entrepreneurs today typically set up social enterprises, or revenue-generating ventures that address the world's current challenges including poverty, environmental protection and social exclusion.
Yet starting a business can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to navigating the law. In the United States, social entrepreneurs juggle with whether they should be establishing a nonprofit, for-profit, LLC or benefit corporation. And because social entrepreneurs often push boundaries in their respective fields, they run into problems such as absent legal framework for doing their work or they become unsure whether their work falls within the confines of the law.
As the number of social enterprises grows, so too does the importance of conversations about navigating the law. To get the dialogue rolling and make starting up less intimating, I've asked legal experts to share their advice for up-and-coming social entrepreneurs.