Open for Business, Open for Social Change
Where does the good start? Does it start at the beginning of the road, as a business or an organization is just getting started, built intuitively into how an organization or a team works? Or does it come as a strategic thought after a business or an organization has realized scale and has the money, manpower, and resources to commit to it???
In today’s world, we’ve experienced two main schools of thought when it comes to how businesses do good. The first is the?Gates/ Zuckerberg Model; the idea that an organization becomes successful in its core business, and starts a non-profit foundation to do good. A prime example: The?Chan Zuckerberg Initiative?(CZI), spearheaded by Facebook’s Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, was founded in 2015, 11 years after Facebook’s founding. The Gates Foundation is another example of an organization doing tremendous good globally - again, after the success of Microsoft Corporation.
A different model for change is the?Yunus Social Business?approach. Named after Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank, pioneer of?microcredit and microfinance, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, this approach advocates for starting a business with the intention of doing social good from the get-go.?
Though these have been the traditional approaches, there are now new-age companies that aim to serve dual purposes of profit and social purpose. For example, in many parts of the world, founders can now choose a legal structure while forming a company, that conveys that the business does not solely exist for profit, and aims to create social impact.?
In the United States, companies can choose how they organize to do good depending on which state they are formed in: a Benefit Corporation or Social Purpose Corporation (SPC). A benefit corporation is a traditional corporation committed to higher standards of purpose, accountability, and transparency. An SPC is a for-profit business with a stated social purpose.?
From philanthro-capitalism to social businesses, SPCs to?B-Corps?to non-profits, there are different ways to organize the intent. But what truly matters is the intent - and the people driving it forward. Without human voices and perspectives to advocate for causes, there is no doing good.?
If you'd like to explore how businesses are truly creating a greater impact, join us to read many more impact stories at Substack: https://higherpurpose.substack.com/