18
business elite canada
H
JUNE 2014
cally well regarded for their
philanthropy, however Kitch-
en adds that too often these
programs were disconnected
from the core business and
even from the organizations
that their customers might
support. For Banks, Kitchen
believes the benefits are clear
across a broad set of areas;
customer engagement & ad-
vocacy, cardholder retention,
an incentive for bank card
use over cash, while also de-
livering a very positive brand
position. People registered
in the program, through the
nine Credit Unions, have re-
ported higher favorability of
their financial institutions
that enabled enrolment in
the ChangeIt program after
registering than they did prior
to joining the program.
Falling
in
line
with
ChangeIt’s mission of in-
cubating philanthropy, the
company recently received
recognition as a Certified B
Corp, or Benefit Corporation.
The designation of a ’B Corp’
is to business what the Fair
Trade certification is to cof-
fee, in that it is a certification
declaring that a company has
undergone a third party audit
and met rigorous standards
of social and environmental
performance, accountability
and transparency.
“Really at the essence
of the B Corp is the concept
of the `triple bottom line`,
so you are in business to be
commercially successful, and
there’s no question we’re in
Mike Kitchen & Dave Beaton
