Minnesota B Corps—have you submitted your annual report yet? If not, make sure to submit yours by March 31 to avoid a $500 late fee!
Wait, what?
Every year, public benefit corporations must file with the Minnesota Secretary of State an annual benefit report covering the previous 12-month period, along with a $35 fee. The report helps businesses assess their successes and roadblocks to achieving their public benefit mission.
Ok, so how?
Minn. Stat. 304A requires that B Corps judge their progress by an independent “third-party standard.” The definition of “third-party standard” is open-ended:
(1) a publicly available standard or guideline for defining, reporting, and assessing the performance of a business enterprise as a social or benefit corporation;
(2) promulgated by a natural person or an organization; and
(3) that is independent of the public benefit corporation.
There are many existing third-party standards available for companies to use. B Labs’ B Impact Assessment is the most widely known. Others, such as Food Alliance Certified and Sustainable Farm Certification are geared toward specific industries, such as agriculture, farming or the food industry. We’ve seen an on-going need for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs to have a flexible, easy-to-use third-party standard so they can quickly assess the health and success of their company throughout the year.
In response to this need, we’ve created a B Corp Annual Assessment that we use with our clients. Feel free to use this tool yourself, pass it along to a company in need, or be in touch with any questions.
Have more questions?
Feel free to drop us a line and we’ll help you figure out the answers!