Small Businesses, Big Impact

B The Change Weekly: May 8, 2020

Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:

It’s likely that most of you reading this work at or own a small business. That’s because nearly half of Americans work at private companies with 500 or fewer employees — and those companies made up 99.7% of U.S. businesses in 2016. And while the global pandemic has affected all businesses to some degree, small businesses are more likely to be negatively impacted by the sudden economic shifts in recent weeks.

In this B The Change Weekly, we highlight examples of small businesses in the Certified B Corporation community that are coming together and innovating to advocate for their future, their communities, and their workers — building on their stakeholder focus to collectively create big change.

A Force for Good, Now and Throughout the Year

B Corps and partner companies are supporting #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of giving and unity created in response to greater needs created by COVID-19. The #GivingTuesdayNow event extends beyond financial donations: Participants are encouraged to take action at the grassroots level in a variety of ways, whether that’s by helping a neighbor, advocating for an issue, sharing a skill, or giving to causes.

Learn more about B Corps that work with nonprofits, philanthropic endeavors, and other community-minded efforts and how they are helping other organizations adapt to this time of crisis and the unknown ahead.

B Corp Leaders Speak up for Small Businesses

When shelter-at-home orders led to almost instantaneous cessation of business activity across much of the country, business owners and their workers were thrown into an uncertain state. That motivated Rose Penelope Yee of B Corp Green Retirement and other business owners in the B Corp community to join the newly formed B Corp Financial Resiliency Task Force.

In the first of a series of B The Change articles from the task force, Yee shares why the CARES Paycheck Protection Program — that Congress intended to serve as a lifeline to small businesses — is not enough to provide the relief that working people and small businesses need. (Editor’s note: The opinions expressed by the task force do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab or of the entire B Corp community.)

Building on a Foundation of Supporting Employees

At Rhino Foods — a Burlington, Vermont-based B Corp that makes cookie dough and other bakery goods for use in ice cream and other frozen desserts — innovations that benefit employees at the small business and their community are the norm.

On B The Change, author Christopher Marquis outlines how Rhino Foods has built on its Income Advance program, which offers workers small-dollar loans for financial emergencies, by establishing a nonprofit foundation with plans to share it and other employee-oriented services on a national scale.

Stay in the Know

Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:

• On #GivingTuesdayNow and Throughout the Year, B Corps Help Businesses Be a Force for Good: B Corps Encourage Grassroots Support Through Online Giving and Purpose-Driven Partnerships
• How a 3,000-Year-Old Lesson Can Shape a More Resilient Future: The Distant Past As Prelude: Using Corporate Governance to Prepare for the Next Crisis
• Save Jobs and Revive Main Street: We Need a Comprehensive Rescue Package: What Must Change in the CARES Act to Support Small Businesses
• How Can We Measure — and Convey — What Matters Most? Why Organizations Should Align Their Work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• A Moment of Truth for Purpose-Driven Businesses: This Time of Crisis Could Speed the Transformation of Capitalism. But Will We Seize the Opportunity?
• B Corp’s Innovative Employee Practice Inspires Launch of National Nonprofit: Rhino Foods’ Income Advance Program Paved the Way for Opening of Foundation
• Building a Financially Healthy Workforce: How B Corp HoneyBee Helps Companies Prioritize Worker Financial Wellness — and Why That Is More Important Than Ever
• How Will B Corps Respond to COVID-19? 5 Predictions from Their Climate Change Solutions

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.

Small Businesses, Big Impact was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.