B1G1: Business for Good Founder & CEO Masami Sato
Episode Summary
About Our Guest
On today’s episode, host Christine Petrella welcomes Masami Sato, the founder and CEO of B1G1: Business for Good. B1G1 is a global giving initiative that’s quickly grown into a global movement. B1G1 helps businesses embed giving right into the heart of their everyday activities. B1G1 makes business giving easy, effective and meaningful. It focuses on connecting small-to-medium-size businesses with more than 500 carefully selected, high-impact giving projects. Since 2007, B1G1 has come together with more than 3,000 businesses from all industries around the world, creating over 250 million giving impacts, just by doing what they normally do.
Show Notes
Today Masami joins the show from Singapore to discuss the goal and mission behind B1G1, her story of founding the company 14 years ago, and how her team decides which worthy causes to work with. Masami explains how even the tiniest donation can make an impact with B1G1. She also expands on the spirit of giving that drives the B1G1 initiative, describes their annual “study tours” to projects they support, and shares her inspiring thoughts on seeing people come together to transform the world, one small step at a time. To learn more about B1G1 and their focus on creating a world that’s full of giving, visit B1G1.com.
For more information, and other episodes on companies and entrepreneurs who give back, please visit TheGiveBackModel.com. That’s where you can also let Christine know about companies you’ve found that give back, and check out The Give Back Model merchandise, where $5 for every sale goes to charity. Thanks for listening!
Episode Highlights:
● Masami Sato is the founder and CEO of B1G1: Business for Good
● She is a 2-time TedX speaker, an AMAZON best-selling author, and winner of the
Sustainable Business Award
● The goal of B1G1 is simply to create a world that’s full of giving by turning everyday
activities, like getting a cup of coffee or reading an inspiring book, into something that
can create a positive impact
● They have worked with thousands of businesses who have embedded giving in what they
do, and together created just over 250 million giving impacts around the world
● B1G1 began in 2007
● The idea behind B1G1 started while Masami was running a previous business that
focused on access to healthy eating and nutrition for families in her community
● She began by giving a small percentage for every frozen meal sold to help a child in need
● B1G1 was borne out of a desire to help other small businesses do the same
● How her team fully vets which “worthy causes” to work with
● Part of their criteria is finding companies that can break down their activities into small
units of impact
● Their goal is to make it easy for even small businesses to give back
● With B1G1, the tiniest of donations still make an impact
● For each guest booked and each podcast episode released, Christine is donating toward access to a safe house for children saved from sexual abuse in Nepal, and shelter provided for a night for homeless children through B1G1
● There are many unique ways that business owners can give back, and a variety of different causes they can give toward, depending on what they are most passionate about
● How Global Goals has impacted the B1G1 model
● If we all give just a little bit, together we can make a massive difference
● Having common goals helps bring us together as well
● Before the pandemic, B1G1 held annual “study” group tours so that people could actually
visit the projects they were supporting
● Encouraging this compassion and “giving spirit” is one important step to transforming
the world
● Impact milestones that the B1G1 team celebrates
● Numbers are a good indicator of their impact, but the stories are what illustrate the true
spirit of giving
● If we can come together united, we can transform the world in a much more powerful
way
● B1G1 has a goal to reach 1 million businesses by 2030 so they can create an even bigger
impact
Quotes:
“So the goal of B1G1 is to simply create a world that's full of giving.”
“Imagine a world where, for example, every time you have a cup of coffee, a child receives access to life-saving water, or every time you read an inspiring book, a tree gets planted. Or every time you go to see your physician, then somebody else receives access to health care.”
“We find businesses that want to make an impact in the world, and help them embed effective giving in what they do.”
“Our aim is not to just bring as many charities as we could. But to make this model work, we need to be able to find organizations that are also able to identify and break down their activities into small, micro units of impact.”
“The aim is to make it really easy for businesses, even small businesses, to think about what they could be doing today, rather than trying to do something huge and set up a foundation.”
“If many businesses are getting together, even though [one business] cannot fund the entire thing, together we could actually come up with a more significant amount of funds to enable these organizations to do more of this work.”
“I just love, again, how you make it so easy and how we can see the impact, and we can share that impact with our audience.”
“If we did a little bit of help, we all gave a little bit of help to a global community through effective giving, by supporting your causes that are actually doing important work, then we can make a massive difference.”
“Encouraging this giving spirit, and this feeling of sharing and compassion, but also in a mutual way, rather than in a one-sided way, is very central to how we want to drive this initiative... It's the real giving spirit that businesses can embrace and embody that's really going to transform the world, because then they will start making different decisions every day.”
“We believe that the numbers are a good indication, but at the same time, stories are key to the actual spirit of giving.”
“I love seeing people coming together, and feeling connected, the feeling of giving and being generous and caring for each other. So this matters to me a lot. And I think we have the ability to do this. When we can remove the judgement, that’s when we can realize that our differences are not the dividing factors. Our differences are unique elements that make us special together.”
“If the world can start to move in that direction of unity, and diversity, that will be something that I would love to see.”
The Give Back Model Podcast is now a proud member of B1G1
Scroll down to the bottom of the The Give Back Model homepage to see our impact!
Links:
The Give Back Model website TheGiveBackModel.com
Follow The Give Back Model on Instagram @thegivebackmodel
B1G1: Business for Good website B1G1.com