Low Profit Limited Liability Company (L3c)

In Vermont, an L3c is a for-profit company that would not have been formed but for the company's relationship to the accomplishment of charitable or educational purposes.

On April 30, 2008, with Governor Douglas's signature, Vermont became the first state in the country to adopt the L3C. Although L3Cs can operate in all 50 states, incorporation is currently allowed in certain states only: Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming and the federal jurisdictions of the Crow Indian Nation of Montana and the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

As an L3c Space Research L3c must significantly further the accomplishment of one or more charitable or educational purposes and for us that is done by focusing on the goals and mission of our sister company, Tuberville which is a small Vermont non-profit set up to increase awareness of the issues surrounding hunger in our communities which it teaches thru example.

As the Non-Profit Hub describes:  An L3C is a variation of a limited liability company (LLC), which is a private organization where the owners actively participate in management and don’t face personal liability for the organization’s debts and obligations. An L3C, though, is a hybrid of an LLC and nonprofit business model, which is where an organization operates to benefit the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive.

In this blend, an L3C is a private organization that does earn profits, but only so that it can conduct business to help a certain cause. In essence, it operates to better social welfare in some way. L3Cs were designed to make it easier for socially responsible businesses to attract money from foundations and private investors.

L3Cs extend to many different markets too—current L3Cs range to everything from Chicago’s Overflow Coffee Bar, a coffee shop dedicated to bringing members of their community together, to VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, a Vermont-based investment fund that provides capital to businesses specializing in sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices. Other examples have included farmers’ markets, newspapers, law groups and art centers.

Though L3Cs are socially conscious, they’re not tax-exempt, and donations and investments are not tax-deductible.