In Brief - Public Benefit Corporation: Aligning Mission and Values From the Start

Many of the people we work with are intrigued to learn more about what a public benefit corporation is. GoodWell incorporated as an Idaho Public Benefit Corporation in December 2015.

What Is a Public Benefit Corporation?

Think of a public benefit corporation as a legal tool for aligning an organization's mission with its value. The mission stays protected during leadership changes and funding rounds, if applicable. 

"Benefit Corporations: 1) have an expanded purpose beyond maximizing share value to explicitly include general and specific public benefit; 2) are required to consider/balance the impact of their decisions not only on shareholders but also on their stakeholders; and 3) are required to make available to the public, except in Delaware, an annual benefit report that assesses their overall social and environmental performance against a third party standard. Such report does not need to certified or audited by a third party, but use the standard as an assessment tool." (benefitcorp.net)

Why GoodWell?

Pete Gombert made the purposeful choice to engrain GoodWell's values into the operating objectives of the business. Our main goal is to bring positive social change. We believe benefit corporation legislation is a critical component of the changes we are advocating for and we would like to deeply thank everyone at B Lab for all the work they have done to make the world a better place. 

Can I Incorporate As a Benefit Corporation?

Legislation has passed in nearly half of the states. Check your state's status here.

We hope you can familiarize yourself more with public benefit corporations. Feel free to reach out to us with any additional questions on how we have prioritized the designation.