Putting the “kindness” in New Kind

To us, New Kind has always been more than just our name. Yes, we help businesses scale with soul to become new kinds of purpose-led technology enterprises. But we also see our name as a promise—a promise to ourselves and our stakeholders that we’ll never stop looking for a better way forward. 

Inherent in that quest is how much it means to us to be a certified B Corporation, and to demonstrate that we use business as a force for good. Doing our part to empower and support impactful and socially responsible organizations is something we take seriously. 

The day-to-day impact we make with our B2B technology clients all over the world is what keeps us engaged, energized, and in business. Collaborating to humanize and grow their brands is the lifeblood of our company. 

But we also care about making an impact for the greater good and in our local community. That’s why we launched New Kindness—an initiative that solidifies our commitment to all the ways we give beyond our core B2B tech work with our time, talent, and financial contributions.

New Kindness: Giving our time

It’s important to us that every New Kinder has the space to use their gifts, passions, and interests to serve and give back. One way we put that into practice is by giving every employee PTO for volunteering. Part of that time is spent on at least one team volunteer activity per quarter, bringing our remote team closer together as we help support our local community. 

We launched our volunteer efforts by spending an afternoon volunteering as a team at the Raleigh Branch of The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. The Food Bank is an impactful nonprofit, affiliated with Feeding America, that has provided food for our friends and neighbors facing hunger in 34 counties across North Carolina for over 40 years. 

Our team showed up with big hearts and strong hands to help convert industrial-sized boxes of cereal into usable portions for those in need. Our team sweated, smiled, and built a shared bond packaging 1,550 pounds of wholesome food totalling 1,200 meals for local families in a few short hours. That impact was meaningful to us and we’re already getting excited about our next volunteer event.

New Kindness: Giving financially

When considering where to donate our funds, our first thought is maximizing the good each dollar can achieve. For New Kind to make a financial donation, the receiving organization needs to operate in harmony with the impact we seek to create and the principles we care deeply about: openness and transparency, employee empowerment, diversity and inclusiveness, responsible corporate governance, and environmental stewardship.

Once missions are aligned, we confirm that each receiving organization is a registered 501(c)3, reaches a “Give with confidence” rating from Charity Navigator and/or Charity Watch, dedicates less than 30% of its total costs to administration and fundraising costs combined, and does not have controversies or other negative press.

In 2021, New Kind made an impactful donation to four organizations that met our criteria: 

• A Place at the Table—A local nonprofit, pay-what-you-can cafe providing community and good food for all regardless of means in our hometown of Raleigh.
• Families Together NC—An organization dedicated to ending family homelessness in Wake and surrounding counties in North Carolina. 
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund—a legal association dedicated to fighting for racial justice.
• World Central Kitchen—an organization providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

New Kindness: Giving our talent

While making financial contributions and volunteering our time could be enough, we wanted to do more. (Plus, they say good things come in threes). So we decided to start contributing our skills and talent to what we call New Kindness Projects—pro bono consulting projects for nonprofits and mission-driven businesses that make an impact.

A New Kindness branding project helps clients tell their stories and better express who they are, what they do, and why it matters to the world. Each client receives the same level of our team’s expertise and commitment that our paid clients do. 

Once we’re assured our missions are aligned, we ensure that the potential clients’ leadership team will be involved, engaged, and ready to make decisions. That way the work stays on schedule and is implemented quickly and effectively.

For our first challenge, we helped Brand Fuel, a fellow B Corp, answer the question: How can branded swag make the world a better place?

To take a deeper dive, check out our Insights post on the project.

New Kindness: The next horizon

To us, New Kindness isn’t a flavor of the month effort, it’s a commitment and a work in progress. Just like a tech platform, we continue to iterate and optimize in order to maximize our impact and make New Kindness the best it can be. We’re always on the lookout for organizations to work with. Because the better New Kindness gets, the more we can serve. 

Know anyone who might benefit from New Kindness? Or one of our more core projects? Drop us a line. Let’s start the conversation.