B Corps We Love: Care2

By Cameron Crane

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." ~ Desmond Tutu

I have always loved this quote. It tells us that no action is too little. It reminds us that if we all did our part, the Earth just might be okay. But more than that—it reminds us that immense resources aren’t required to make a difference. The only things you need are an idea, a voice, and the willingness to speak up.

This March, our focus is all about inspiring children to make a difference and stand up for the environmental causes they care about. Luckily, with the power of the Internet and companies similar to Care2, it’s easier for children to get their message amplified and find the supporters they need than ever.

Care2 is a fellow B Corporation, and this month’s featured B Corp that we love. Why? Because it is an amazing platform for supporting important efforts, and also because of its unique background. After all, what better way to remind children that they have a voice than to highlight a company that was founded on a dream someone had as a child?

When Care2 Founder Randy Paynter was only 13, he was traveling up the Amazon with his father, an ornithologist. While his father was studying the birds, Randy absorbed the people and world around him. What struck him most was the “contrast between the remote tribes living in harmony with the rainforest, and the poverty and deforestation in the most ‘modernized’ towns [they] visited.” With that observation, a seed was planted.

“I realized that the world was terribly out of balance,” Paynter writes, “From that truth, an overwhelming desire to make a difference was born.”

The concept was developed early, but it was with the arrival of the Internet in 1998, that Paynter finally got his voice and platform. He and two backers started Care2 from his apartment, on the belief that the desire to make a positive change in the world was within each of us.

Today, with more than 12 million members, Care2 is the largest online community of people making a difference in healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare. Care2 provides powerful tools to make a difference in your life, your community, and the world. They provide the resources for members to get informed about important causes, take small steps towards healthy and green living, and take action to better the world. Care2, like Desmond Tutu, believes that individual actions can collectively make a difference.

Care2 has three main functioning components:

• they help educate and involve individuals in opportunities to live a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle and take civic action on a variety of causes
• they recruit activists/donors and donations for nonprofit organizations
• they promote more healthy and sustainable products and services from corporations

Thank you, Care2, for all that you do!