Tag Archives: B Corporation

In 3 Words: How to Build a Purpose-Driven Business

To polish up a year’s worth of learnings from working with and writing about purpose-driven companies, I’ve summed up 42 principles in exactly three words each. Three words–easy to understand, easy to share. This list partially represents the 155 blogs I’ve written this year, but it’s nowhere near complete. Add your triplets in the comments […]

Will B Corp’s New Campaign Be The Death Knell For Cause-Washing?

Rather than doing the industry in, cause-washing might just save corporate sustainability. Although consumer trust is worse than we thought, the anecdote has the potential to alter the way companies do business and consumers shop. Less than one percent of people (surveyed recently by BBMG in partnership with B Lab) trust company advertisements or statements […]

How Better World Books Built A Multimillion-Dollar, Venture Backed Social Enterprise–with David Murphy

In this 7-minute clip, Better World Books President and CEO David Murphy talks about the company’s fiduciary commitment to its nonprofit literacy partners and how it received funding, initially with an SBA loan and later through Good Capital, a social investment firm. Right-click and download for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] […]

Two Questions You Need To Answer Before Choosing a Structure For Your Social Enterprise–with Brian Howe

How much control of your company are you willing to give up in exchange for funds? is a question that all investment-seeking entrepreneurs need to answer. Social entrepreneurs are confronted with another key question that impacts how they want to set legally establish their organization: How important is profit versus mission? With these two questions […]

The Best Kept Secret to Social Venture Funding?

Consider becoming certified as a B Corporation. If you’re looking for mission-aligned capital for an existing business, B Corp status will help, and if you’re looking for traditional investing, it won’t hurt. B Corporation certification signals to investors, consumers and employees that you are use business to solve social and environmental problems. For companies looking […]

Confused About L3Cs and the Rest? Me Too. Jenny Kassan, Esq. Helps Us Out

Click the player or right-click and save for the MP3. Business structures for Triple Bottom Line ventures are my Bermuda Triangle.  I’m whipped around to end up confused about the benefits of each structure (L3C, LLC, Special Purpose Corporation, hybrid for-profit and nonprofit) and its respective requirements and restrictions.  So I asked Jenny Kassan, managing director at Katovich […]

How He Turned His 20 Years on Wall Street Into a Hub for Impact Investing –with Mike Van Patten

Michael Van Patten used to give out his entire allowance when he lived in Ecuador during high school.  This went against common practice to ignore people with their hands and pretend they weren’t there.  The poverty he saw stuck with him for years but didn’t affect the way he made a living, until recently. Click the […]

Use Community to Build Your Social Enterprise (Why Stealth Mode is For Suckers)

Arm yourself.  Surrounding yourself with other social entrepreneurs is the next best thing to learning-from-doing.  A community of people with similar goals adds to your knowledge bank, provides feedback, offers shortcuts, referrals and product discounts, and pushes you forward. When Jill wanted to implement an IRA program for the employees who ran her coffee shop, […]

How Elemental Herbs Built a Social Mission Without Really Trying–With Caroline Duell

Sometimes, as social entrepreneurs, we’re reluctant to show our passion for the social side or our business. We get caught up in trying to appear soundly strategic or business-minded or we over think our messaging, “Will this look like cause-washing? Can customers get behind this? How will we measure and track our results?” There’s merit to the […]

Start Your Social Mission With 10% and a Recycling Bin–with Jill Fink

Get the Google Audio Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) Click the player to listen to our conversation or right-click and save to download. For Jill Fink, it started with a desire for a neighborhood cafe, the application of her personal values to business and […]