ImpactKarma’s Experience in the B Corp Clinic

Written by Juliet Payne, Marketing Manager at Karma Wallet

Since ImpactKarma was founded, we knew we wanted to become a B Corp. Our mission is to create a better, more sustainable world through innovative finance and technology solutions. So, we wanted to have our company adopt values that are also socially and environmentally responsible – and B Corp Certification is a way to prove that. But… as a small, early-stage startup, the path to certification seemed daunting. Where do we begin? What is the process?

Through working with Jessica Thomas and the NC State University B Corp Clinic, we were able to become B Corp Certified this year with a score of 100.3! Here’s a bit about our experience.

Our journey began when Jessica invited ImpactKarma to participate in the B Corp Clinic in Fall of 2022. 5 students picked ImpactKarma as their course project alongside an external advisor, Kate Wiggins. The main goal was for these students to work with our business and identify if we would be eligible for B Corp Certification.

Throughout the clinic, the students created a framework for our business and walked our team through various aspects of the B Corp Certification process. This framework simplified the certification process for us and ensured we were prepared for the types of questions and data requests that B Corp would require from us.

The students, alongside advisor Kate, began working with us to complete the B Corp questionnaire – a comprehensive set of questions that dive into environmental impact, social initiatives, legal, company culture, and much more.

Not only did they lay out a detailed plan of action for us to follow when we apply for certification, but also identified initiatives that we could easily complete that would raise our overall B Corp score. For us, this was huge! We have a ton of social and environmental initiatives, but as a smaller company, there are always more areas of opportunity. By seeing what low hanging fruit we could accomplish before applying, we were able to raise our overall Impact Assessment score.

From there, we worked with an external consultant recommended by Jessica to take us to the next phase of the application process. Rudha Loganathan built upon the work of the B Corp Clinic, helping with specifics like documentation and specific questions from the B Corp team.

By the end of November 2022, we had submitted our application to B Corp. With the help of the B Corp Clinic, this process only took a few weeks – but if we had tried to do it alone, it undoubtedly would have taken months and months due to our size and resources.

By May of 2023, we got the news – ImpactKarma had been accepted and was officially a Certified B Corp!

As an impact-driven business, becoming a B Corp was always something we strived for – but the NCSU B Corp Clinic, Jessica, Kate and Rudha made the entire process easier than we could have imagined. Their help was invaluable! From setting up our roadmap and walking us through the application, to digging through documentation and responding to B Corp, this team had the knowledge, experience, and passion to take us through the B Corp process seamlessly.