We did it.
In the middle of building an app, a community, attending conferences, and starting a raise…. we managed to publish our first Benefit Report.
I know you’re probably thinking… why? What is it? Who cares?
So glad you asked. Or thought that.
Why?
Gander Social Inc, the makers of Gander (the app), is incorporated in British Columbia as a Benefit Company–a for-profit company that is legally bound to providing a public benefit.
We define that benefit via a Benefit Statement that we use as a guide for everything we do:
To build trustworthy social infrastructure that protects user dignity, advances digital sovereignty, and strengthens democratic participation in the digital public sphere (the “Benefit”).
In pursuing this Benefit, the Company will conduct its business in a responsible, transparent, privacy-respecting and community-guided manner. The Company is also committed to Canadian stewardship, governance and ownership to ensure long-term accountability to the public interest.
And then report against it annually.
What is it?
The Benefit Report itself–the format, structure, contents–are all up to us really.
Broadly, we chose to use existing frameworks as our measuring stick:
- B Lab’s B Impact Assessment principles
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 9, 10, and 16
And then reported on what we did, and the impact.
The things we care most about are hard to measure. Trust, dignity, healthier conversations, stronger communities, democracy… all but digital sovereignty are notoriously difficult to assess. More so for a small startup that prides itself on collecting as little data as possible.
But we did it. Just… sans making any declarations of measured impact. For this one, anyway.
Who cares?
You, we hope.
Running a social network comes with a huge responsibility to humans. One that we think most social companies have simply set aside solely to please shareholders (and egos).
We don’t want that for you, or for for us.
The whole idea behind Gander is that it’s better social media. Which means right from the foundation. Not just a lovely UI, but a better company, prosocial experience, and healthier community.
So doing things this way and reporting on it very much matters. Even if you don’t really feel like reading a 30 page report about how we’re trying to make a better world, isn’t it nice knowing you can whenever you want?
The report
We considered breaking the whole thing down for you in a blog post, but really, it’s a pretty lovely read. At least worth a solid skim. So we’ve embedded it below for you, or you can grab a PDF copy here.
As always, we’d love your feedback. We’ll be shouting from the rooftops about it on Gander and on the other socials, where you can leave comments or ask questions. Or ping us at formation@gandersocial.ca.
