From Cobblestones to Pavement: The Legal Road Forward for the Creation of Hybrid Social Organizations

The U.S. legal system largely divides organizations into two categories: for-profit and nonprofit. Those wanting to operate between these categories have had to cobble together business solutions, mixing and matching subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships. Recently, though, organizations from both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors have made new efforts to converge upon middle ground. These organizations, called "hybrid" organizations, blend nonprofit and business values, but they are no longer mixing and matching subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships.

Rather, they are whole organizations that are operating on the cusp of the for-profit and nonprofit categories.