As of January 2019, Hera Hub, the first international, female-focused coworking space is thrilled to announce it is now an official Benefit Corporation. Since it’s inception, Hera Hub has served as both a resource and built-in community for women-owned business.
This transition realigns Hera Hub’s continued commitment to their mission to provide support to women in the launch and growth of their businesses.
Founder, Felena Hanson, is excited about this step for Hera Hub claiming transparency, accountability and commitment to ensuring sustainable social and environmental impact. “Hera Hub has always been focused on making a positive impact on the community. We do this in three ways – programs to help people get back into the workforce, donation of space to non-profit organizations, and free business education and mentoring programming. Becoming a Benefit Corporation is simply a way for us to better articulate the impact we’ve made over the last seven years and the impact we hope to make in the future.”
What does this mean for the future of Hera Hub?
Benefit Corporations are committed to higher standards of accountability, transparency and social impact. This corporate classification creates purpose-driven benefits for not all stakeholders, not simply shareholders.
According to Patagonia Founder, Yvon Chouinard, “ Benefit corporation legislation creates the legal framework to enable mission-driven companies like Patagonia to stay mission-driven through succession, capital raises, and even changes in ownership, by institutionalizing the values, culture, processes, and high standards put in place by founding entrepreneurs.”
Benefit Corporations can easily become confused with Certified B Corps. We’ve broken it down a bit for you.
A Benefit Corporation is a corporation with modified obligations committing it to higher standards of purpose, accountability, and transparency. Benefit corporations commit to creating public benefit and sustainable value in addition to generating profit.
A B Corp is a third-party certification that includes considerations on measurable social performance, accountability, transparency and measurable environmental performance.
If your business is considering becoming a Benefit Corporation understanding these common misconceptions will certainly help bring clarity in the process.
Key differences between Benefit Corporations and a Certified B Corp:
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B Corp is a voluntary certification and can be dropped at any time
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Benefit Corporation is a permanent change to a corporation’s structure
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Both are of great value in attracting and retaining employees, investors and customers
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Both classifications are a superb method to illustrate key differences with competitors
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Both require a genuine commitment to giving back
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Both represent alternatives to the classic 501c3, non-profit designation
Hera Hub is more than ever, committed to the ongoing impact it has made and will continue to make in the local communities around the world. For more information about Benefit Corporations visit www.benefitcorp.net.
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