Is It Time for a New Category of Organization?

(4-16-10) On April 14, Russell Sullivan, staff director for the Senate Finance Committee, spoke at a symposium hosted by Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, "Philanthropy in the 21st Century: Should All Charities Be Created Equal?" Sullivan forecast the emergence of proposals to form "for-benefit corporations," agencies created for the public benefit with business structures falling somewhere between for-profit and nonprofit organizations. While positing that health-care reforms will be a driving factor in the change, he also acknowledges that the blurring of lines between the two business models is a decade-old phenomenon.

Grant Williams reports inThe Chronicle of Philanthropy.