How B Corps Are Supporting Their Stakeholders by Staying Active
B Local Bay Area and atlasGO Collaborate to Engage Employees, Build Community, and Stay Active for Local Causes
It’s no surprise that employee physical and mental health is a top priority for responsible business leaders going into the new year. Many are looking for solutions to help their employees stay engaged, happy, and healthy while we all navigate the new ways that we’re working together. The good news is that there are virtual solutions out there that can support your employees’ health and raise funds and awareness for a good cause.
The San Francisco-based Certified B Corporation, atlasGO, is on a mission to grow the leading wellness for good movement with its fitness app that helps companies engage their employees and helps nonprofits raise funds. Companies can set up engagement challenges that allow employees to unlock these funds for nonprofits by tracking and sharing their activities on the atlasGO app and web dashboard.
The leaders of atlasGO knew that they wanted to become a B Corp from the very start of their business. As a startup, they became a Pending B Corp before officially becoming a B Corp in December 2018. Magali Mathieu, Co-Founder and Chief Partnership Builder at atlasGO, says they “wanted to build an example of a tech company that can be profitable and has a scalable positive impact.”
As part of its commitment to supporting the B Corp movement, atlasGO has been an active member of B Local Bay Area. Mathieu believes that the community has helped shape the company’s culture and essence. So atlasGO wanted to give back to the Bay Area B Corp community and bring everyone together on their platform. For the past two years, they’ve worked with B Local Bay Area to run multi-company employee engagement challenges that benefit local nonprofits.
For the inaugural challenge in 2019, B Local Bay Area invited local B Corps to pick a nonprofit partner to support. The community decided that they would come together to support local at-risk youth job training by raising funds for the nonprofit New Door Ventures. Eleven B Corp company teams participated in the challenge for one month, with 70 individuals tracking over 4,500 miles by walking, running, biking, or traveling by wheelchair and raising $2,100 for New Door Ventures.
This year, the B Local Bay Area 2020 challenge pivoted to being more inclusive. Since the pandemic started, atlasGO went from positioning itself as a fitness platform to a well-being platform by adding activities like doing indoor workouts, making bread, reading a bedtime story to your kids, completing a puzzle, and many others. Whether it was going for a hike or gardening, 40 participants tracked over 1,300 miles and 555 hours, keeping their minds and bodies active all month long.
After supporting New Door Ventures in 2019, the community wanted to support an environmental justice nonprofit in 2020 and raised $1,200 for San Francisco Baykeeper. Tracy Tinclair, B Local Bay Area’s Events Chair and Hanson Bridgett’s Events Coordinator, says, “No matter where you live in the Bay, we all love and want to protect the health and natural beauty of the Bay and Baykeeper fights to make sure that happens.”
Employees from local B Corps and San Francisco Baykeeper joined the challenge. “For B Local Bay Area, it’s great for us to expand and work with nonprofits because we get to build stronger relationships and make connections,” Tinclair says. “When we bring B Corps together with local nonprofit partners, it’s valuable as we learn a lot from each other.”
For participants, a highlight of the 2020 challenge has been seeing the #sweatyselfies and the beautiful places people choose to quarantine and explore safely. The atlasGO app offers 24/7 engagement methods with other participants through virtual high fives and photos shared with other “sweaty changemakers,” and provided people with a way to connect and celebrate each other’s successes during a challenging year.
“Investing in your people’s well-being is more critical than ever,” Mathieu says. “I believe organizations have an amazing opportunity to help their people develop healthier habits and strengthen the unity of their community by leaning on each other with a focus on service and giving back!”
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
