Legal and Financial Frameworks for Social Business

Building Social Business (2010) is a book of 9 chapters written by 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and published by Public Affairs/Perseus Books Group. The objective of social business is to create self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth even as they produce goods and services that serve the poor. Yunus demonstrates how social business transforms lives, offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own, and argues that public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model which, in his view, has the potential to reduce the negative fallout from free-market enterprise. Chapter 5 explains the process that shapes an idea into a legally and financially sound social business plan. The author discusses how to attract investors, compares the legal structures underlying for-profit and non-profit business models, and delineates structural alternatives for non-profits.