Common Good Corporation

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Citizen Logistics is a common good corporation:

We’ve incorporated Citizen Logistics as a “Common Good Corporation”. What does that mean? Well, at some point we want to expand rapidly. That means taking investment. But we don’t want to let that compromise our values!
When we do take investment, there will be a cap on the ROI investors can expect or demand, and rather than offer an exit through acquisition or IPO, we offer a buyback scheme. So long as we offer at least that level of return and can commit to buying back our stock, our primary covenant is to use profits “in accord with the common good” — in our case, to devote resources to activating local communities in volunteering and fun, even if that’s not the most lucrative deployment opportunity.
We will also have a related 501(c)3 organization where folks can send donations that will go straight to community work. This is a kind of hybrid for/non-profit structure, similar to google’s “.org”. It means we can take investment when we start to grow, but that our investors and staff will be maximizing more than the traditional “bottom line”.