The Mission-Driven Venture: Business Solutions to the World's Most Vexing Social Problems

The Mission-Driven Venture provides actionable guidance for leveraging the power of the marketplace to solve the world's most vexing social problems. Written by attorney and financial advisor Marc J. Lane, a renowned thought leader and expert on entrepreneurship, social enterprises, impact investing and entrepreneurial finance, this book reaches the full spectrum of interests represented at the intersection of business and social change. Whether a social entrepreneur, impact investor, socially conscious individual, or a nonprofit or foundation leader, any reader committed to social innovation can benefit from this practical roadmap to the rapidly developing arena of social enterprise.

Through real-world accounts of the journeys and successes of mission-driven ventures, Lane effectively illustrates the transformative potential of social enterprise, inspiring the reader to be an agent of change. Among the many tools offered through The Mission-Driven Venture, readers will:

• Find functional guidance to move from idea to reality with a step-by-step guide to designing and implementing a successful mission-driven venture
• Assess the benefits and challenges of the business models and entity choices available to the social entrepreneur
• Examine the entrepreneurial linkages between nonprofits and for-profits
• Recognize governance issues that can arise when mission and profit objectives clash, and discover tools for managing them
• Explore evolving trends and developments in financing social enterprise
• Discover methods and tools for measuring and reporting social impact
• Develop an effective strategy for achieving both financial success and meaningful social impact

About the Author

Marc J. Lane, a nationally recognized business and tax attorney and financial adviser, practices law at The Law Offices of Marc J. Lane, P.C. in Chicago (www.MarcJLane.com) and serves as the President of Social Enterprise Alliance’s Chicago chapter.

Marc is an expert on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance, and an influential advocate of best corporate governance practices. Twice a recipient of the Illinois State Bar Association's Lincoln Award, Marc, a “Leading Illinois Attorney” and “Illinois Super Lawyer,” has consistently earned an "AV® Preeminent™" rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory, the highest ranking awarded. Martindale-Hubbell also includes him in its Bar Registry of Preeminent Attorneys. By appointment of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, he chaired the state’s Task Force on Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Enterprise.

An innovator in helping social enterprises, foundations, investors, lenders and philanthropists leverage capital to maximize financial results while driving positive social change, Marc has taught Social Enterprise at Northwestern University School of Law. He is also the pioneer behind the Advocacy Investing® approach to socially responsible and mission-related investing (AdvocacyInvesting.com).

Marc drafted Illinois' and other states’ Low-profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) legislation, which authorizes the new hybrid business form which can leverage foundations' program-related investments to access trillions of dollars of market-driven capital for ventures with modest financial prospects, but the possibility of major social impact. He continues to champion innovative social enterprise business forms and models throughout the nation.

Marc is the author of 35 books, including Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs, published by the American Bar Association, and The Mission-Driven Venture: Business Solutions to the World's Most Vexing Social Problems, published by John Wiley and Sons. Marc is also an in-demand speaker. His latest keynote focuses on cutting-edge ways to solve some of our most intractable social problems--thanks to new funding and partnership models among impact investors, philanthropies, non-profits, and corporations.