Guest post by Lauren Kay, Communications Manager, Community Partners

Should new legal structures (B corporations were the primary focus) be created to make way for new business hybrids that allow for a bottom line concerned not just with profit, but social good as well?

For me, the jury was still out, even after 90 minutes of sometimes heated and continuously lively discussion at the debate-style session. Addressing the hot-button topic – on what was termed the "it's-just-a-gimmick" side of the argument -- was Jan Masaoka, the straight-shooting president of California Association of Nonprofits, and Phil Buchanan, president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Speaking in favor – on the "gamechanger" side – Marc Thibault of the American Sustainable Business Council, and Robert Wexler, an attorney with Adler & Colvin. Paul Clolery, editor of The NonProfit Times, served as moderator and provocateur.

Masaoka, holding a box of "corn" pops that she'd been doling out to arriving participants pre-session, noted that a while back the popular cereal was known as "sugar" pops. The point? There have always been corporations doing good things in the world and there is no reason to now create a new legal structure for them, or think they will have any greater role in addressing today’s social ills. She warned that a kind of "nonprofit-washing," likened to corporate "green-washing," would be one of many less-than-desirable results.

Wexler argued that these new corporate forms are "absolutely necessary so that corporations can do more public good." Without them, corporations must legally focus on profits to fulfill their responsibility to their shareholders. Still, Buchanan pointed to Starbucks and Whole Foods, with their records of social responsibility and good works, and questioned whether these new hybrids really were necessary.

Masaoka and Buchanan also worried that B corps:

• Are not held to the same disclosure requirements as nonprofits and shouldn’t receive similar tax benefits;
• Play into the idea that market forces will be able to solve all our problems; and
• As the “next new thing” will further drain new talent away from nonprofits.

Coming away with more questions than answers following the session, I asked Marc Thibault whether a business like Seventh Generation – and a B corporation example he offered – might not have just done its environmentally conscious work without that new structure. His point was that to ensure the company would always be committed to its environmentally conscious mission and values, no matter who owned the company it needed the B corporate structure. (Other examples included Numi Tea and New Leaf Paper.

In the end, there seemed to be some agreement that B corporations were really too new for final conclusions to be drawn and that there will need to be a good deal of scrutiny over the next 10 years as to their true benefit to the public good. What do you think about B corporations? Gimmick…or game changer?