Provisions
Typical major provisions of a benefit corporation are:
Purpose
- Shall create general public benefit
- Shall have right to name specific public benefit purposes (e.g. 50% profits to charity)
- The creation of public benefit is in the best interests of the benefit corporation
Accountability
- Directors' duties are to make decisions in the best interests of the corporation
- Directors and officers shall consider effect of decisions on shareholders and employees, suppliers, customers, community, environment (together the "stakeholders")
Transparency
- Shall publish annual Benefit Report in accordance with recognized third party standards for defining, reporting, and assessing social and environmental performance
- Benefit Report delivered to: 1) all shareholders; and 2) public website with exclusion of proprietary data
Right of Action
- Only shareholders and directors have right of action
- Right of Action can be for 1) violation of or failure to pursue general or specific public benefit; 2) violation of duty or standard of conduct
Change of Control/Purpose/Structure
- Shall require a minimum status vote which is a 2/3 vote in most states, but slightly higher in a few states
Benefit corporations are treated like all other corporations for tax purposes.
Read more about this topic: Benefit Corporation
Famous quotes containing the word provisions:
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)