On 3 December 2017, at Amaphiko Connect, Vircon Legal co-founder Erdem Mümtaz Hacıpaşaoğlu spoke on Law for Social Entrepreneurs, alongside Ata Uzunhasan, Serdar Kuzuloğlu and Kaan Akın.
Choosing a legal form when profit is not the only goal
Social enterprises face a structural question ordinary startups do not: Turkish law offers no single vehicle that is both a trading company and a mission-locked organisation. An association or foundation can hold the purpose but is limited in how it earns and distributes; a company can trade freely but has no built-in protection against the mission being sold along with the shares. Most social ventures end up combining the two, which makes the relationship between them — funding flows, shared staff, use of the brand — the document that matters most.
Funding follows the same logic. A double bottom line investor and a grant-maker impose different constraints, and grant conditions often survive long after the money is spent. Where financing comes from the public, crowdfunding rules apply regardless of the cause, and mission commitments are best written into the articles of association rather than a manifesto. See Corporate Law and Community & Responsibility.
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