A friend recently shared with me that he’s considering attaching a nonprofit arm to his start-up. He laid out a host of strategic reasons why this makes sense and described the types of funds available from government, academic, and enterprise companies to support nonprofits that are focused on increasing entrepreneurship. As he spoke, I realized that I know nothing about nonprofits and haven’t considered the strategic benefits of a for-profit organization having a nonprofit arm.

I did a few high-level searches and learned that more for-profit organizations than I realized have strategically created nonprofit sibling organizations. I spoke with a buddy about this, and he pointed out that a prominent entrepreneurs we know recently seeded a nonprofit that will support the vision and mission of his latest for-profit project by raising money from corporate sponsors and getting government grants.

I have a massive knowledge gap in this area and need to learn more about the for-profit/nonprofit strategies others have used to support their mission.