Will the L3C Rescue Small Town America?

I'm excited about the new Michigan L3C (Low-Profit Limited Liability Company) legal structure and it's vast possibilities for community development.

The L3C is now legal in all 50 states as a result of legislation signed into law in Vermont on April 2008, Michigan on January 2009 and the Crow Indian Nation on January 2009.  Created by Robert Lang, CEO of the Mary Elizabeth & Gordon B. Mannweiler Foundation, the L3C removes the barriers to Program Related Investments (PRI) that have faced private foundations, greatly increases the total funds in the charitable pool and creates a way to induce investors wary of the stock market to invest in the future of their own communities.

Almost everything you would wish to know about the L3C structure and its possibilities can be found at the Americans for Community Development website.  Check it out.

Is this the bridge between private and public that will repair crumbling physical, social and economic resources?  If so, how will we take advantage of this opportunity in our small community?


Home Run Events: Innovative Ideas for Community Revitalization by Roberta (Bobbie) Stacey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License