 We've got a segment up for you here that I'm excited. You'll notice that there is sort of a little bit of a lean towards the for-profit sector at SoCAP, but the non-profit sector is just as critical within the social capital markets. And we see a lot of organizations doing hybrid models as well. And so sometimes understanding how all of this works together, again, helps to hear a case study, understand where for-profits, non-profits, everyone comes together to make this whole marketplace work. So I'm excited to welcome to the stage for a story that I think weaves in and out of both of those worlds. And you'll really enjoy Todd Johnson from Jones Day and Bill Strathman from Network for Good. So first of all, I just want to thank Rosalie and Kevin. This is the second time I've been on the plenary stage at SoCAP over the years. And I'm really grateful for this particular time slot right after lunch on Friday. It's the best, because thank you very much. So I'm really only here as a prop because Bill Strathman is main event. Bill is the CEO of Network for Good. And Bill, what the heck is Network for Good? It could just be about anything. That's true. Yeah, the name is a little vague, but it sounds great. It's better than the Network for Evil, so that's why we went with it. So we are a lot like PayPal for charity, simply put. It's a little more complicated than that. But basically we provide a donation page and fundraising software and payments platform to non-profits, thousands of non-profits. So if a small non-profit has a website and they want to receive donations, PayPal's not exactly built for that, ours is, and it's very easy to use. We also provide free training on how to raise money online. And we do that for about 100,000 non-profits. So it's, yeah. You're a brand new startup. You just started last week. So that's the idea, right? Fundraising for non-profits, both the know-how and then the software. But no, I actually, I'm not the founder either. It's the founder is a guy named Steve Case, you guys might have heard of him. And he back in the wake of 9-11 created a non-profit, AOL, Yahoo, Cisco, all three came together with a $10 million grant, seed grant for Network for Good. And the idea was, you know, simply then to make it as easy to donate online as it is to shop online. And so they started it with a $10 million grant. They, about two years later, I came in as kind of a turnaround guy because they had spent that money. Now wait a second, you were a consultant. Why would you go to work for a non-profit? That's a good question. So I was, I was actually, before I was a consultant, I was actually a social entrepreneur before it was like a name or even cool. It was actually kind of lonely to be a social entrepreneur back then. I didn't know that's what I was. So I was, you know, a tree-hugging philosophy major who went to get his MBA to change the world as one does. And so that was kind of my, I don't know, you know, what about me made me want to do that from the start. But, you know, my heroes were Anita Roddick and Ben and Jerry's back in the day. But I sold out. I sold out and I took the fat paycheck from Anderson and became a management consultant. But on my fourth day with Anderson, I lost my mom to cancer and she was 54. And then we lost my wife's mom to cancer when she was 57. And so that was a kick in the ass, a wake-up call for the, you know, guy who was, you know, a social entrepreneur. And so I changed my trajectory and I traded, you know, financial success for life significance, as they say. So instead of working for the Death Star, you started working for the Network for Good. Exactly, exactly, so I did. So tell me, tell me a little bit, you know. And that was 12 years ago. 12 years ago, all right. So 12 years ago, you got to work for this nonprofit. What's happened over the last 12 years? What's, tell me a little bit about the story of Network for Good. Is it a nonprofit today? It is not, it is not. So we are B Corp certified for-profit, or I like to say for-purpose company. But I've always thought that we should, you know, change the name for those companies who are not in our kind of space. You know, we call them not-for-profits. Why don't we call them not-for-purpose organizations? But anyway, so we were, it was a nonprofit when I joined. And so the task at hand was turn it around, raise money. So I raised over the course of about six years another $10 million. So $10 million grant to start, $10 million in funding. And importantly, along the way, it didn't have a business model when I joined. So we built a business model. And we got the point in 2011 where we were self-sufficient on earned revenue alone as a nonprofit. And so we're kind of this cool technology company. So we're charging, you know, $70 a month to nonprofit for the donation page as software as a service is what we are. And then a transaction fee, 3%, because we have to pay credit cards so we have a little margin. Anyway, we built up this business model where we were breakeven and a nonprofit. And it got harder and harder to raise money at that point. In part because you saw. We were victims of our success. I mean, so what we did is we switched to becoming a for-profit. And the reason was that we are now a nonprofit with this great service, right, for other nonprofits. And we're breakeven, but we're not making enough money to really reinvest. And, you know, we were about the mission. We wanted to unleash generosity on a massive scale. And so I said to my board, listen, if we're going to go big, then we need to raise more capital. And I'm not going to be able to do it because now, you know, I'm competing for donations from organizations that, frankly, need it more because I've got earned revenue. And so we spun it out and created a for-profit, B Corp. And because I needed capital, it was harder to attract talent as a dot org. And the governance was somewhat less nimble as a nonprofit than a privately held company. And I think you were also starting to face some competition from better funded for-profits. Yep, exactly. So how did you do this? How did you go from being a nonprofit to a for-profit? That had to have been really simple. So, you know, full disclosure, Todd is our legal counsel, was our legal counsel. So this is kind of like Obi-Wan Kenobi interviewing, I'll take Luke Skywalker, you know. But anyway, so, you know, what we did was, it was a balance, right? So we actually looked at some impact investors, right, to do it. And the idea was how do we, obviously, not lose our mission? So how do we ensure that we have mission insurance or mission lock, as you guys have heard us talking about in this conference this week. And then also, how do we not scare away the money? Because the impact investments at that stage, you know, we're kind of impacting investing with a lower case I, right, because we're helping the helpers. And so we weren't, didn't fit the profile for the very, very, very small, relatively speaking, pool of capital for impact money. And so I figured, all right, we need to be attractive to that much larger pool, and maybe one partner at this, you know, traditional private equity firm will see what we're doing and get interest. And that kind of rounding error in terms of the, you know, maybe the 1% of all that money is bigger and was at the time than all the impact money. So the task was, how do you not scare away the money, but not sell your soul and lose the mission? Right. How did you do that? Well, and then both in the short and long term. So the way we did that, I've got six Bs that we used, okay? Just to keep it easy, one, the buyout. So what we did is we created, you know, what does an investor invest in a company for to have an exit? So how do we protect from them to keep with the Star Wars theme? How do we protect from them selling to Darth Vader, right? The private equity. And so we put in this Zuckerberg-like stock called Founders Preferred Stock that couldn't get diluted, couldn't get voted out, right? And that Founders stock contains a veto on exit. If they go counter to the mission or want to sell, if the private equity investor wants to sell the company to Darth Vader. And just to be clear, who owns that? The non-profits. So that's the cool thing. We're not that novel in being a B Corp certified company, but we are pretty novel in that we have a non-profit owner and a traditional private equity firm owner and then employee options because what we did is we kept the non-profit intact. That was very important because that gives you somewhere to put the charitable assets at the end of the day, right? So if we ultimately do have an exit, then in the non-profit owns let's say 50% of the company at that point, all those assets go back into the charitable sector and they can be distributed as the non-profit sees fit. Okay? And so we have the non-profit owner and then the private equity owner. And those are the two masters that we're trying to solve in terms of walking this tightrope. So the non-profit has a veto on the buyout. What are the other five Bs? So the other five Bs, so bylaws. So we with the help of Todd and Jones Day put in, there's the ad, we put in the bylaws so that we could address a larger set of stakeholders than just the shareholders, right? Because obviously the number one thing you want to protect from is if the non-profit puts a veto to the investors, they can say in a traditional corporation, well, that's you're breaching your fiduciary responsibility if you don't take the highest offer, right? So if Darth has a higher offer than, I don't know who, Obi-Wan, then they can get sued. So that was very important in protecting that ability. Yeah, in fact, I would say for the total geeks out there, what we did is we incorporated it in New York under the constituency statute in New York, which specifically allows directors to think beyond just maximizing wealth for shareholders. It's a stakeholder statute and then we drew that into the articles and bylaw. Correct. That's what the time now is. So now it's like 32 states that have these types of laws as opposed to the 17 or so when we are doing it. So anyway, bylaw is the second thing, right? And so it's just a concept of a broader set of stakeholders. And that also enables to get B Corp certification, which we now have, the good housekeeping seal that you are doing this stuff. Second was Brandt. And so we're like, I'll say, OK, that's good on the exit. But what about along the way, how do we control the company from the private equity firm to making the company go off mission? And so the net or for good name was a big part of the value. And so instead of putting that into the company, when we took it out of the nonprofit, the nonprofit licenses it to the company, right? And so now that now, so if I now I'm running the company, right? And if I with the private equity firm start to use our platform for gambling or whatever, they can say, OK, you can do that, but you're not doing it under the net or for good name, and they can pull the license back, right? And then the investor gets nervous. They go, well, what about if we want to have an exit? You know, the net for good name is everything. OK, it'll transfer on exit, right? It'll transfer on exit with the acquisition. So the third one was the brand. The other way along the way in the immediate term is, well, how do I stay close? And we basically took two board members from the nonprofit board who stayed intact. The nonprofit board stayed intact, it's like 12 board members. We took two, we put them on the board of the company. And so now the board of the company is me, the two board members from the nonprofit, and then two representing investors. And so Bill's the swing boat. And those board members are anchored in by that special class of stocks and non-profit owners. Right, exactly. So board, bylaws, buyout, brand? Yeah, I couldn't think of a B for people, so I use Bill. And Bob, who is my CFO, and he actually really is named Bob. And so Bill and Bob, this is actually one of the most important pieces as far as I'm concerned. They actually dress up as Ted and Bill at the excellent adventure thing, never mind. Yeah, right, exactly, Bill and Ted's. So I didn't change overnight when we, I'm the same guy that took the job for the nonprofit with no hopes or dreams of ever having to be a for-profit, to be honest. And then we left Bob as the CFO of the .org. And so now he and I have been working together for seven years, and so there's a relationship there, I relationship with the board, so the people was a huge piece for me. I mean, I was really nervous that they were gonna put something, you do some national search and put somebody else in front of the .org, and I've seen that movie before and it can go awry. And so that was a really big piece for me. And the last one, I can't believe we're actually gonna get this done in time, the last one is business. So the .org, we pretty much took all the operations, right? It went from being an owner-operator to an owner, but it still played a role in our business. It still receives donations and then re-grants some of the charities, the charitable arm. And so we set, the six B is business. We set up a business relationship with the .org, right? That provided it sufficient funding to maintain operations because as an owner, there's no liquidity that comes out. There's no dividend or anything. And so we set up a business relationship so that we could pay them for their fair share for what they were, for their role in our ability to create this really cool model where we can process a donation for any charity instantly. I mean, you can go to Net for Good, as you may know, and you can search for any charity you want, your kids' PTA, anything, and make a donation to them like that. So it's a pretty cool service. Two quick ending questions. How long did this take you to get done? It took us, let's see. I first pitched the board on the vision in 2011. We started to see whether investors would invest in 2012 and then we spun it out in 2013. So almost two years? Two years, yeah. And how much did it cost to get it done? How much did it cost to get it done? I'm hitting you with a, sorry, you weren't ready for those questions. No, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine. I mean, it was probably, I mean, we had some, I was a little, you know, you provided the services. Oh, pro bono. Pro bono, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because now everybody's gonna come running up. But probably about 250. Okay, all right. 250 grand. And, okay, okay. And just backing out 10,000 feet, you know, final thoughts, because we've been down on these. So this is kind of like, pretty technical in the weeds for this last day. And so, you know, final thoughts are kind of, I have two, I'm super passionate about money for good. I mean, net for good is about that 300 billion in the US right now, right? And trying to make that friction free for nonprofits. And how we're doing it is about all this stuff that we're talking about here. Socap, right? Businesses that are doing good and have a mission. I mean, and make money. And so, on those two fronts, number one, I'll just make a plea for the social entrepreneurs in the room is that if you can find a market-based solution for attacking the social problem that you're going after, and I know this isn't maybe a little obvious to this crew, do it. And I feel like we have a moral imperative to do it because you gotta leave the charitable dollars for those problems that do not have a market-based solution. And then for all of us as individuals who are going home to our friends and family this weekend, there's a little bit of an echo chamber here coming here. I know it isn't my neighborhood. I mean, most of my neighbors can't spell impact investing, right? And so, I beseech you, and I'm gonna do a little gag here so that you remember, I beseech you to try and stop everybody that we know from doing this. Right? And what they're doing is they're going, this is my investment money, right? I'm gonna make money with this and I'm gonna give this away, right? And the fact that they've treated it in two different pockets, we gotta break that binary and just think it's one. Thanks, Bill. Thanks.