Frequently Asked Questions about NetRaising’s B Corp Certification
NetRaising receives frequent inquiries to participate in surveys and academic research projects from universities all over the world.
In an effort to balance the needs of student researchers with our small team’s work schedules and responsibilities, we’ve put together this list of some of the most frequently asked questions we get from academic researchers about our engagement as a Certified B Corporation.
- 1. Describe the nature of your business.
NetRaising is a consultancy that specializes in helping nonprofits and educational organizations succeed on the web.
- 2. Why did you decide to register as a B Corporation? What factors influenced your decision to pursue B Corp Certification?
“We believe sharing what we’re measuring and what the outcomes have been will provide our clients, our team, and our community with valuable information for sound decision making, and perhaps a little competitive encouragement.” (Source: https://netraising.com/about-us/oregon-benefit-company)
- 3. Do you emphasize the "B Corp" status in your marketing, and if so, how?
https://netraising.com/about-us/certified-b-corporation
NetRaising does very little traditional marketing other than a website, a monthly newsletter and through a few select membership directories.
- 4. How important is your B Corp status to your clients?
Right now a lot of our clients don’t know the significance of being a B Corp, but we believe that will evolve over time to become something that carries much more weight in vendor selection processes used by nonprofits.
- 5. In what ways has your company benefited, or not benefitted, from becoming a Certified B Corp (or Benefit Corp corporate form, or both)?
The main noticeable value to NetRaising so far has been new opportunities to connect with leaders in our community and the amazingly high quality of job applicants. Smart, talented, educated people want to work for a B Corp, and this gives us really outstanding candidates when we’re hiring.
- 6. Describe your experience in participating in the B impact assessment to meet the requirements of this designation.
It’s pretty frustrating because most of the social impact measurements are for companies that give back to their community; there aren’t yet measurements for companies that give forward like NetRaising.
“Measuring Our Impact” article from NetRaising Newsletter
Also, a company gets a higher score for practices like purchasing recycled paper and then recycling it after use. It receives zero points for achieving and maintaining a paperless office. A company gets a higher score for giving 1% of its profits to charity, and none for devoting over 90% of its resources to working alongside charities as NetRaising does.
Little things like that make the assessment very challenging for us as it keeps our score lower than other businesses that we believe may have less of a positive social impact than ours.
- 7. Describe the legal and filing fees to become a “B Corp”; was it an easy process?
There were no legal fees for becoming a Benefit Corporation registered with the State of Oregon because we reviewed the requirements and filed the necessary paperwork ourselves. Although there is an annual fee of $100 paid to the Oregon Corporation Division for business registration in general (a business license), there is no additional fee to become a Benefit Corporation, as recognized by the State of Oregon.
The process was fairly easy as the Oregon Secretary of State has step-by-step instructions to follow on its website. There is some more work involved in completing the articles of incorporation or organization form because one must include an additional statement in the articles according to the Oregon statutes (the Secretary of State provides a handy link), so it’s important to familiarize oneself with the statutes and to follow them when preparing the statement.
An annual benefit report is also required by statute to be posted on the company’s website and to be distributed to the owners.
- 8. How does your firm make its Benefit Impact Report (or alternative report) available to the public?
https://usca.bcorporation.net/directory/netraising
https://netraising.com/about-us/certified-b-corporation
https://netraising.com/about-us/oregon-benefit-company- 9. How does the reporting for Certified B Corps demonstrate or not demonstrate accountability and transparency with respect to social and environmental performance?
https://netraising.com/about-us/trusted-proven-reliable
Publishing our reports online: https://netraising.com/about-us/oregon-benefit-company
We also use our own website as a talking-point/example when we advocate amongst our colleagues and clients for greener web hosting and lightweight web development practices (in an effort to conserve energy and make websites more accessible to people restricted to internet access via a metered mobile phone).
Learn more at: https://netraising.com/how-we-work/green-development-practices
- 10. What type of qualitative reporting would you add to the annual reporting provided in the impact Assessment with respect to the specific public benefit?
“Measuring Our Impact” article from NetRaising Newsletter
How much of a business’s mission is focused on, or invested in, giving forward?
- 11. Has your firm established goals related to your social and environmental impact and if yes, do you communicate the goals internally and or externally? How do you communicate these goals?
Yes, although we have not explicitly enumerated these goals. (Unofficially, we would like to beat our B Corp Impact scores, improve our bike/walk-to-work mileage, and maintain or decrease our annual energy consumption. Some of these are more feasible than others).
We communicate both internally and externally.
- Internal communication occurs through interview processes, training, and ongoing mentorship.
- External communication happens via our website, and occasionally via emails, trainings, or other community events, e.g:
- 12. If your firm sets social and environmental impact goals, could you provide an example of a goal that your firm set?
Non-written/advertised goals included switching our website over to green hosting and rebuilding it with lightweight practices. We measured it with a number of page speed, hosting, and accessibility web tools.
See other unofficial goals from the previous question.
- 13. If your firm sets social and environmental impact goals, how do you measure success with regard to the goals related to social impact?
We use third-party tools, including:
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
https://tools.pingdom.com/
https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
http://wave.webaim.org/
https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/We’ve also participated in the Oregon Bike More Challenge, and have seen how other similarly-sized companies perform.
- 14. If your firm sets social and environmental impact goals, how does your firm react when the social impact goals have been achieved? Or when goals have not been met?
We do our best and keep trying. We weigh the pros and cons of a website that’s using more energy. We might re-code something. We’re always on the lookout for new web development/design solutions that will require less energy-use in serving up a website.
Nearly all of our clients are schools or nonprofits. We know that when the services we provide are beneficial to our clients’ positive social impact, our clients stay with us. One of our primary success indicators is our client retention rate, which remains above 80% annually.
- 15. In your opinion, has your firm made changes to firm policies and or practices as a result of measuring and reporting on your social impact? Could you give us an example of a change you made to your firm’s policies or practices as a result of measuring
We recently wrote a Virtual Office Guide and added it to our Employee Handbook. It contains purchasing policies, encouragement to use greener/sustainable products, and a list of resources of where to find environmentally-friendly products. These guidelines were previously unwritten (although shared by employees), but the Impact Assessment encouraged us to be more explicit, and by providing an actual list of resources, employees working remotely are more likely to make more environmentally sustainable choices.
- 16. Can you estimate the costs of measuring and communicating social impact in terms of time?
If a company feels that it can fully realize its social mission without giving up the traditional corporate formation (and becoming a benefit corporation), then it may be time to reassess the depth, quality, and value of its stated social mission. Also, it should consider what safeguards it has put in to place to ensure that its social mission isn’t easily ignored when the company comes under stress or has a change in leadership.
NetRaising was realizing its social mission for nearly 10 years before it took the steps to become a benefits company. It became a benefit-company to ensure that its social and environmental focus will be preserved into its future.
- 17. To what extent do you believe the B Corp (other for-benefit) status can affect future economies?
In the short term, it’s proving to be really good for micro-economies. It may take decades more for it to have a sustainable, positive effect on larger economies. The good news now is that it’s starting some powerful discussions and getting the traction it needs to become a major positive influence on the future of business.