Bookstore Sparks Conversations of Change

A young woman from Tampa, Florida met with financial investors about her tourism school in Kigali, Rwanda.A budding financier from Atlanta, Georgia engaged crowds of young social entrepreneurs from New Orleans, Brazil, and India.

A business woman from Zambia shared the story of her bike shop to a Japanese volunteer.

A successful engineer from Arizona spotted his invention, a water-filtration bottle sold inexpensively in the developing world, on the page of a book at our table.

This all just took place at the Better World Books SOCAP11 Bookstore.

Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) explains that “a new form of capitalism is arising that recognizes our ability to direct the power and efficiency of market systems toward social impact, leading to a more balanced set of ‘returns’.”

Their mission is to serve as “ a multi-platform organization dedicated to the flow of capital towards social good. Our event series connects leading global innovators – investors, foundations, institutions and social entrepreneurs – to build this market at the intersection of money and meaning.”

So where does Better World Books fit in to this emerging economy for good?

Good Capital, the hosts of SOCAP, are also key investors in our company. Many people assume that since Better World Books gives away books and grants to education, we are a non-profit. It’s actually the opposite. Since we are a sustainable, for-profit social enterprise, we are able to consistently give away books and funding.

Serving as an example of a successful social enterprise and proving that businesses can, and should, create social good is part of our mission. It’s a model we hope all businesses adopt. We are for profit for a purpose.

There is a huge and growing space in the social improvement world for business to make a positive impact. Better World Books was honored to serve as the event bookstore at SOCAP where we had the opportunity to introduce like-minded entrepreneurs and investors to help one another. The books at our store were personally curated for the crowd and are all available for you here.
Social enterprise, impact investing and triple-bottom-line effectiveness are so important to us at Better World Books that we became a founding member for the Benefit Corporation movement (B Corp). As a B Corp, we are held to a higher standard to serving people, planet and profit as our shared bottom line. We are also held accountable and audited by B Labs to maintain the integrity of this special status.

If you are interested in being a conscious consumer and voting for positive change with your dollars, here are a few of our B Corp friends that we has the pleasure to spend time with at SOCAP…

Bison Brewing (PHOTO)
Good Capital (PHOTO)
Gray Ghost Ventures (PHOTO)
Indigenous Designs (photo)
Runa Tea (photo)

What is your favorite socially-minded business? How do you find the most positively-impactful companies to shop with? Have you started your own company that could be a B Corp? Share your story below!