As many practitioners know, beginning January 1, 2012, the State of California now recognizes the “benefit” and “flexible” corporation. While there are distinctions between the two and “general” corporation, they have a capital structure just like a corporation. They have shareholders, boards, etc.
The key distinction is that the leadership of profit making enterprise if they are formed under the laws of a “flexible” or “benefit” corporation, don’t need to worry about shareholder lawsuits against them for failing to maximize profits if they also have a goal of advancing social benefit.
An articles in Huffington Post on this very matter, See this link, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/benefit-corporations-patagonia-greyston-bakery_n_1632318.html
