Getting to Scale

CHAPTER EIGHTForm Follows Function

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MISSION-DRIVEN VENTURES come in all different flavors: forprofit, nonprofit, hybrid, public, private, co-op, employee stock ownership programs (ESOPs), community development corporations (CDCs), and forms that have yet to be invented. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but any corporate form can support a mission focus—even the much-maligned public corporation.

I have found a fair amount of “form envy” on both sides of the nonprofit/for-profit divide. Nonprofit practitioners are envious of the access to ...