Several years ago, I made a promise to myself: my actions would always tie to my values. This showed up in my work—advocating for health equity and climate action with my employers. It showed up in my spending—purchasing seasonal produce at farmers markets and supporting mission-led business. It showed up in my savings—closing bank accounts tied to weapons and fossil fuels and shifting investments toward community-forward funds.
As I’ve moved from individual choices to organizational leadership, the question evolved: How might I hold a company accountable to its mission?
At HealthBegins, our mission is to help healthcare and community partners advance equity, address social needs, and achieve long-term impact for communities harmed by unjust practices. People often assume we’re a nonprofit. But we’re not. We’re a for-profit social enterprise. We must maintain financial health, but not at the cost of compromising our values. We reinvest our profits in our people, learning, and infrastructure so we can advance our mission.
Intentions are powerful, but they’re not enough. For my individual practices, I’ve realized that I need baselines to know how to improve and accountability systems to keep me on track. I asked myself: What would that look like for HealthBegins?
The first step for us was pursuing B Corp Certification.
Certified B Corporations are held to rigorous standards for social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. To earn this certification, we went through a rigorous assessment and revised our operating agreement to explicitly consider the interests of stakeholders including our impacted populations, communities, clients, and funders.
The certification process wasn’t just symbolic. The B Impact Assessment revealed our strengths and exposed blind spots. It pushed us to build a roadmap for improvement, be transparent with results, and commit to ongoing recertification. We’ve now joined a global network of companies that see business as a force for good and can share tools and practices to help us improve.
This matters deeply in the world of health care. As payers, systems, and community partners invest in equity and social care, they need collaborators whose values are built into their structure, not just in rhetoric. B Corp Certification is one way we live that alignment.
And while certification is a milestone, it’s not the finish line. We will continue to refine our practices and structures so we better serve communities harmed by systemic injustice. I invite you to join us, because accountability is more powerful when we walk it together.
