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Zack GodfreyWhen Zack graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2011, he had little interest in the business world. Folks around him said he could choose to follow his heart and not make any money, or follow the money into an unsatisfying career. Zack chose a third path – the purpose-driven business career.
Over the past 10 years, Zack has continued to grow his career across several industries – technology, communications, consulting, and SaaS sales. He’s served on multiple nonprofit and employee resource group boards, all with the desire to give back and encourage others to find and grow their own sense of purpose. While earning his MBA at the University of Georgia, Zack built the UGA B Collaborative as a way to help the university define its social impact initiatives, help local businesses become better by using the B Impact Assessment, and provide students with meaningful consulting opportunities. Zack continues to build the ecosystem of Georgia B Corp Clinics with the hope that students from every university in the state will be able to participate. Through it all, Zack has continued to refine and build on his personal mission: Building Better Businesses for a Better South. When he’s not thinking about B Corp or Star Wars, Zack loves spending time with his wife and son, traveling, reading from his ever-growing library, and drinking local beers. |
What is your company mission?
Benevity’s mission, aka our Moonshot, is to act as a catalyst to infuse a culture of Goodness into the world. Benevity exists to help companies help people be their best selves in their everyday lives by connecting them with a sense of purpose, while delivering business and social impact!
What does your company do? What product or service do you offer?
Benevity is the global leader in corporate purpose software. We have award-winning cloud solutions that empower companies and their people to take social action on the issues and causes they care about. Through giving, volunteering, grantmaking and positive actions, we help companies build better cultures and engage their employees and customers to create greater social and business impact. With software that is available in over 20 languages, Benevity has processed more than 7 billion dollars in donations and 38 million hours of volunteering time, 340,000 positive actions and awarded one million grants to 303,000 nonprofits worldwide.
How long have you been a B Corp?
Benevity has been a B Corp since 2011! The company is based in Calgary and was one of the first Canadian B Corps.
What attracted you to B Corp?
I first heard about B Corps while representing my then-employer at the 2016 Net Impact conference. The founders of B Lab presented about B Corps and the changing business landscape, and I was struck by how well they articulated the idea of “business as a force for good.” At the time, I was doing a ton of purpose-driven work outside of my day job, and I was struggling to figure out how to turn that purpose-driven work into my day job. I wasn’t an environmental sustainability expert, and I wasn’t sure about a career in HR, so I felt a bit stuck.
Suddenly, I was presented with an easy way to identify purpose-driven businesses that aligned with my values, a roadmap for helping businesses be better, and a guide to help me understand what kind of support companies needed when it came to ESG/CSR. It felt like a dream come true.
Why does B Corp matter to you?
It’s a path forward to a better way of doing business. I like to tell folks that it may not be the answer for every company, but it is certainly an answer. Ideally, we’ll get to the point where B Corp becomes irrelevant because every company acts like a B Corp. Until then, I’ll continue to do my part to build this movement for better business.
What two or three activities do you do within your company to keep the B Corp mission a key part of your company culture?
I’m still pretty new to Benevity, but I’ve already established myself as the B Corp SME in the company and am helping Benevity through the recertification process. Since Benevity has grown significantly in the past couple of years, I’m also helping make sure that everyone in Benevity understands the value of our B Corp certification and how it ties into our company’s purpose.
If you were encouraging other companies to consider applying for B Corp certification, what would you say to them? Why should they become a B Corp?
Benevity’s mission, aka our Moonshot, is to act as a catalyst to infuse a culture of Goodness into the world. Benevity exists to help companies help people be their best selves in their everyday lives by connecting them with a sense of purpose, while delivering business and social impact!
What does your company do? What product or service do you offer?
Benevity is the global leader in corporate purpose software. We have award-winning cloud solutions that empower companies and their people to take social action on the issues and causes they care about. Through giving, volunteering, grantmaking and positive actions, we help companies build better cultures and engage their employees and customers to create greater social and business impact. With software that is available in over 20 languages, Benevity has processed more than 7 billion dollars in donations and 38 million hours of volunteering time, 340,000 positive actions and awarded one million grants to 303,000 nonprofits worldwide.
How long have you been a B Corp?
Benevity has been a B Corp since 2011! The company is based in Calgary and was one of the first Canadian B Corps.
What attracted you to B Corp?
I first heard about B Corps while representing my then-employer at the 2016 Net Impact conference. The founders of B Lab presented about B Corps and the changing business landscape, and I was struck by how well they articulated the idea of “business as a force for good.” At the time, I was doing a ton of purpose-driven work outside of my day job, and I was struggling to figure out how to turn that purpose-driven work into my day job. I wasn’t an environmental sustainability expert, and I wasn’t sure about a career in HR, so I felt a bit stuck.
Suddenly, I was presented with an easy way to identify purpose-driven businesses that aligned with my values, a roadmap for helping businesses be better, and a guide to help me understand what kind of support companies needed when it came to ESG/CSR. It felt like a dream come true.
Why does B Corp matter to you?
It’s a path forward to a better way of doing business. I like to tell folks that it may not be the answer for every company, but it is certainly an answer. Ideally, we’ll get to the point where B Corp becomes irrelevant because every company acts like a B Corp. Until then, I’ll continue to do my part to build this movement for better business.
What two or three activities do you do within your company to keep the B Corp mission a key part of your company culture?
I’m still pretty new to Benevity, but I’ve already established myself as the B Corp SME in the company and am helping Benevity through the recertification process. Since Benevity has grown significantly in the past couple of years, I’m also helping make sure that everyone in Benevity understands the value of our B Corp certification and how it ties into our company’s purpose.
If you were encouraging other companies to consider applying for B Corp certification, what would you say to them? Why should they become a B Corp?
- The assessment is free. Even if you have no intention of becoming certified, you should still use the tool as a way to measure your business and come up with ways the business can be better.
- Students across the state are eager to help businesses through the B Corp process. It’s a meaningful experience for the students, and businesses benefit from the additional support. It’s a true win-win.
- More and more data is coming out clearly demonstrating that businesses who invest in corporate purpose are better off in the long-term. They are more attractive to investors, to customers, and to employees.
- Your business worked through blood, sweat, and tears to get to where it is today. If it were gone tomorrow, what would its legacy be? Would the world be a better place because it existed? If you were up to the challenge of building your business, then you’re up to the challenge of making it better than ever before.
