A 17-year long career in consulting wasn’t enough for Kelly Dolan, co-founder and CEO of
Ingage Partners. There was something missing.
“Myself and my business partner Michael Kroeger got to the point in our careers where we felt like there was something different we could be doing that’s more purposeful and more fulfilling,” Dolan says.
“So we decided to start up Ingage Partners with the prospect of leveraging what we know—the consulting industry—to create a company that thinks differently, and hopefully inspires and engages people to think differently.”
After just three years of being in business, Ingage Partners has already etched its place in the
B Corp (benefit corporation) community, as it was recently recognized for creating the most positive overall social and environmental impact by nonprofit
B Lab, with the release of its
B Corp Best for the World list.
“The model that B Corp is trying to present is this idea that, ‘No, my company’s not best in the world. We’re trying to be the best for the word,’” Dolan says.
Ingage is one of 92 businesses worldwide recognized, which puts it in the top 10 percent of the 990 total B Corporations nationally.
According to Dolan, when she and Kroeger started Ingage, they knew they wanted a strong focus on giving back to the community.
So, each year, the company gives
25 percent of its profits to charity. Ingage employees are also given four hours per month for paid volunteer time off. And there’s a program in place where Ingage matches donations of its employees when they give to an organization or cause they’re particularly passionate about.
“What we’re trying to do is inspire and engage people to do things differently—try to give back more to the community so that our business can be used for that force for good,” Dolan says. “It’s about modeling that. It’s about our employees giving of their talents, giving of their time, as well as building some momentum around this idea of using business for good.”
Do Good:
• Use the
#bthechange hashtag to show how you're using business as a force for good.
• Consider ways you can begin to use business for good. It starts with an individual.
• Like Ingage Partners on
Facebook.
By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a project manager for Charitable Words. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
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