John E. Tyler III, lecturer in the M.S. in Nonprofit Management (NOPM) program, teaches two insightful electives: Corporate, Private, and Community Foundations and Social Purpose Businesses. Tyler serves as general counsel, secretary, and chief ethics officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he has substantial experience in his leadership roles.
Tyler recently published two significant works, one in the NYU Journal of Law & Business and the other in Nonprofit Policy Forum, exploring how the United States defines, supports, and regulates social enterprises, a sector that exists at the intersection of for-profit and charitable purposes.
As an accomplished scholar and public speaker, Tyler has written extensively on the legal and ethical dimensions of philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, social business structures, and impact investing. His work explores issues such as fiduciary duties, accountability, and the prioritization of mission in hybrid organizational forms.
In his law review article, “Regulating ‘Social Enterprise’ in the United States: Is There Enough There … There? (Is There Sufficient Differentiation to Regulate Differently? Could There Be?),” published in the NYU Journal of Law and Business, his extensive research illustrates the need for greater conceptual clarity and differentiation within the nonprofit sector to enable more effective regulation, policy development, and impact measurement.
In his second academic essay in the Nonprofit Policy Forum, “Regulation and Incentives for ‘Social Enterprise’ in the United States: But First Greater and More Substantive Differentiation,” he provides practical insights for charitable organizations, funders, and impact investors engaged in or seeking to partner with social enterprises. Tyler ultimately argues that before new incentives or regulations can be implemented, the sector itself must achieve greater precision.
These two substantive works offer a comprehensive analysis of the conceptual and policy-based gaps in the social enterprise sector and outline considerations for developing stronger frameworks in the field.
About the Program
Columbia University’s M.S. in Nonprofit Management prepares graduates for leadership roles within mission-driven organizations in a wide variety of contexts, including global and community nonprofits, foundations, education, healthcare, the arts, or as fundraising and development experts.
Learn more about the program here. The program is available part-time, full-time, on-campus, and online.
