Nonprofit-and-notforprofit

From the Sustainability Dictionary: Two types of organizations that are not expected or allowed to make a profit, though many still generate revenues from activities. In return for not earning profits, these organizations are regulated differently and are tax-exempt.

Non-profit organizations cannot distribute revenue to an individual or for-profit company. Any “earnings” gained in the pursuit of its goals are to be returned to the organization and used for these purposes. When non-profit organizations make “unrelated” income, they pay “unrelated business income tax” or UBIT on it.

Not-for-profit organizations distribute any profit among their members, who pay tax on the earnings through income tax.



Intuit Gives a Voice to Local Businesses That Make a Difference

Since the B Corporation movement’s inception a few years ago, policy makers are closer to giving businesses the option to create an organization that can be profitable and do good:  currently the stark choice is to be solely a corporation or a non-profit.  The work and advocacy by B Lab, the organization behind B Corporations, [...]

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Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in a Global Marketplace

The Wallace Center, a program at Winrock International, has just released a compelling report on the business of local food. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in A Global Marketplace is a global survey on the economic, social, and environmental impact of local food. [...]

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B Corps Win Healthy Tax Break in Landmark Law

B Lab, the force behind a new business sector designation—called the B Corporation—which recognizes companies that meet a set of social, environmental and institutional benchmarks for sustainability, is facing a Herculean effort. The work won’t be in convincing people that business can be a positive force for social change—there are already 240 companies in 28 [...]

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Conscientious Capitalism: The B Corp Annual Report

Corporations solve problems. Their solutions address human needs: A better running shoe, a faster search engine, a renewable way to produce energy. Sales—ultimately, profits—provide the primary measure for determining the success of these solutions. But a corporation’s solutions (whether a product or service) do much more than simply produce profits. Sometimes for better and sometimes [...]

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Thanks to Triple Pundit’s Sponsors

We’re lucky to have some really great sponsors here at 3p. In the case of the many organizations and companies we work with, we’d choose to support regardless of the nature of our relationship. By sponsoring, these organizations invest in our ability to continue to publish great content and continue to build the 3p movement. [...]

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E-Waste Recycling for the Little Guys?

Even before State-based laws designed to govern the proper handling of used electronics began emerging across the US, many large corporations had made arrangements with collectors, through which they were able to recycle large numbers of obsolete equipment. But few easy, cost-efficient options exist for small and medium-sized businesses that want to recycle their smaller [...]

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How Sustainable Is My Plumber? … And Why You Should Care

You’re probably already familiar with the ongoing debates over greenwashing, and the various sustainability standards that enable companies to credibly avoid this label. We discussed these issues in the recent post “How green is my product?” But what about services? Do they matter, and do we need to care? After all, isn’t sustainability just concerned [...]

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Business Week Readers Name Top-5 Social Entrepreneurs

Released at the beginning of the month, Business Week announced its list of most promising social entrepreneurs, voted on by its readers. The idea, according to the site, “was to track down trailblazing companies… that aimed to turn a profit while tackling societal problems.” Out of over 200 nominations, here are the top-5:

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How Can We Make Impact Investing Mainstream?

Impact investing, or investing for social and/or environmental impact as well as financial return, has become more and more popular, and will hopefully become the norm rather than the exception. At the Investors’ Circle conference, a panel of experts discussed impact investing. Amit Bouri, of the Monitor Institute, explained the findings of a recent report, [...]

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B Corporation: A Way for “Good” Companies to Walk the Walk

A new report from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing finds that only 2 percent of products that profess some eco-cred on their labels are, in fact, green. This goes to prove something that most consumers already suspected: that just because a company calls itself green and clean, it’s not necessarily green and clean. The same is true, [...]

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Saving the Banks, Nationalization, and Public Utilities: The Finance Public Utility

By Steven Tiell Most Americans can describe ways they are being screwed by the economic and political decisions our government is making. No matter which recovery or bailout plan you consider, there are significant flaws, and we’re left trying to figure out which option will screw us the least. This doesn’t leave us much hope [...]

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Better World Books Creates Better World Through Triple Bottom Line

With all this talk about the “triple bottom line,” I have found very few companies who have actually achieved such a thing. Better World Books is one of the few. And I had the privilege of interviewing co-founder Xavier Helgesen to get the scoop. Triple bottom line refers to an organization which considers its impact [...]

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Are the Girl Scouts a Social Enterprise?

What about WalMart? At a recent SoCap08 panel discussion on Market Creators, moderator Todd Johnson from Jones Day suggested the Girl Scouts of America and WalMart occupy the opposite ends of the continuum defining social enterprise. His opening remarks generated a few chuckles from the audience, and a few hisses when he mentioned WalMart, but [...]

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Social Capital Markets 2008 Conference: Day One Impressions

Attendees at Day One of the inaugural Social Capital Markets 2008 Conference (SOCAP08) were greeted by a sunny day at San Francisco’s Fort Mason and capacity crowds wherever they turned. Registration went well over the expected 300 to reach almost 600 participants that included a mix of non-profits and for-profits with a variety of interests, [...]

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A Better way to Run Our Capital Markets

Paying attention to the news lately, you can’t avoid hearing about the economy and who needs to be bailed out next. What I haven’t seen, though, is a discussion that takes a step back and asks, “What would an economy look like that doesn’t need to be bailed out or ‘fixed’ every x number of [...]

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