Kickstarter, which has helped entrepreneurs as well as established brands finance the launch of dozens of new outdoor, fitness and other sporting goods, has converted to a Public Benefit Corporation.
Benefit Corporations are for-profit companies that are obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders. Radically, positive impact on society becomes part of a Benefit Corporation’s legally defined goals.
Patagonia became the first company in California to register as a “B Corp” in 2012 and has since been joined by Fishpond, Kammok, Klean Kanteen, Newton Running and Notogroup.
“While only about .01% of all American businesses have done this, we believe that can and will change in the coming years,” Kickstarter founders Yancey Strickler, Perry Chen and Charles Adler wrote on the Kickstarter blog Sept. 21. “More and more voices are rejecting business as usual, and the pursuit of profit above all.”
Kickstarted published its Benefits Corporation charter online and is expected to file its first annual benefits statement in February 2017.
Among other things its charger calls for committing to donate 5 percent of annual post-tax profits to arts education and organizations fighting inequality.
