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.
Why?
Gander Social Inc., the maker 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. It guides 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, content) is 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, along with the impact it had.
The things we care most about are hard to measure. Trust, dignity, healthier conversations, stronger communities, democracy (though there is an index for that)… 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. We believe doing right by people and building a healthy, profitable company should go hand in hand.
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, a prosocial experience, and a 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.
https://gandersocial.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Gander-Social-Benefit-Report-2025-2026.pdf
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.
