来源：《哈佛商业评论》2023年5月6月双月刊
Historically, the choice of whether to create a for-profit or a nonprofit was straightforward. If you were starting a business that sold a good or a service and intended to make a profit, you made it a for-profit company. If you wanted to solve a pressing social or environmental problem, you created a nonprofit, which would allow you to accept tax-exempt donations but limit to some extent the organization’s political activities and the nature of its earned revenue.
从历史上看，选择是创建营利性组织还是非营利组织是直截了当的。如果你创办了一家出售商品或服务的企业，并打算盈利，你就把它做成了一家营利性公司。如果你想解决一个紧迫的社会或环境问题，你可以创建一个非营利组织，允许你接受免税捐赠，但在一定程度上限制该组织的政治活动和收入的性质。
As the concept of social entrepreneurship gained traction in the 1970s and 1980s, the paradigm began to shift. In that era a cohort of businesslike nonprofits emerged, including the microfinancier Grameen Bank and the Delancey Street Foundation, which provides training and jobs to recovering addicts and ex-convicts. Mission-driven businesses like Greyston Bakery, which hires workers who’ve traditionally faced barriers to employment and funnels its earnings to a nonprofit foundation, and Stonyfield Farm, which sought to help small dairy farms in New England remain viable by selling organic yogurt made from their milk, further muddied the distinction between for-profit and nonprofit. In recent years the options for entrepreneurs have increased in the United States, with legislation allowing “benefit corporations” in many states and the introduction of B-Corp certification, which a for-profit company can use to signal to shareholders that it will try to act in the best interests of society, the environment, and all stakeholders. Venture philanthropists and impact investors emerged to fund social entrepreneurs who sought both financial and social returns.
随着公益创业的概念在20世纪70年代和80年代获得关注，这种模式开始转变。在那个时代，出现了一批商业化的非营利组织，包括小额贷款机构格莱珉银行和德兰西街基金会，该基金会为康复的瘾君子和前科犯提供培训和工作。格雷斯顿面包店和斯托尼菲尔德农场等使命驱动型企业进一步混淆了营利性和非营利性之间的区别，前者雇佣了传统上面临就业障碍的工人，并将其收入输送给一个非营利基金会，后者试图通过销售用牛奶制成的有机酸奶来帮助新英格兰的小型奶牛场维持生存。近年来，美国企业家的选择有所增加，许多州的立法允许“共益企业”，并引入了共益企业认证，营利性公司可以利用共益企业认证向股东发出信号，表明它将努力为社会、环境和所有利益相关者的最大利益行事。与此同时，风险慈善家和影响力投资者开始为寻求经济和社会回报的社会企业家提供资金。
As the choices have gotten more complex, the favored path for founders has also shifted. In 2009, when MassChallenge, a nonprofit that aims to support high-impact, high-potential start-ups, was founded, all the social enterprises that participated in its accelerator program were registered as nonprofits. Today more than 70% of the social enterprises in the incubator have been formed as for-profit companies.
随着选择变得越来越复杂，创始人青睐的道路也发生了变化。2009年，旨在支持高影响力、高潜力初创企业的非营利组织MassChallenge成立时，所有参与其加速器项目的共益企业都注册为非营利组织。如今，孵化器中70%以上的共益企业都是以营利为目的的。