New Name, American Sustainable Business Network, Retains Core Strengths of Each Organization

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, November 17, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and Social Venture Circle (SVC) announced today the finalization of their merger following a strategic alliance during which the two collaborated closely to assess its benefits and impact. Collectively, the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN, a 501 C3), as the new organization will be known, will realize many of the anticipated benefits both organizations experienced during the past year of alignment, and also some unexpected ones, in pursuit of creating the leading socially responsible business group in the U.S. The resulting collaboration will retain all staff, is a powerful force for environmental change, and social and economic justice at the federal, state, and local levels, and will feature a new logo.

The past 14 months of the strategic alliance have shown that by combining membership efforts, membership growth outpaced prior trends by more than 100 percent. The combined organization will be stronger, more resilient, and better able to thrive in challenging economic times. Other key benefits identified include:
The combined board of directors brings even more expertise to support the organization’s bold visions, deeper expertise in operationalizing commitments to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and a larger shared network create opportunities for collective aims.
ASBC and SVC have each found the strategic alliance to be fruitful and productive, and a formal merger will realize - through economies of scale - accelerated growth along with increased member benefits, and a streamlined member experience.
The size and quality of the combined membership improves the value proposition to prospective members, foundations, and sponsors, enabling revenue growth and organizational stability.
Each organization has unique capabilities, such as the annual SVC conference and event planning, and pitch events, and ASBC’s media communications and coalition building. A merger allows the combined organization to more fully deploy these capabilities for the benefit of the missions of both organizations and do even more for members and other stakeholders.
The new organization will save money and be more time efficient as there are several places where each organization had duplicate work areas that will be combined in the single entity such as web management, marketing, social media, development of webinars, and accounting.

“The mission of SVC has been to pull together money, expertise, and connections for the investor community to create a better economy—for our society and the environment—in a powerful, diverse, and inclusive network,” said Isaac Graves, former executive director of SVC and now COO of ASBN. “SVC’s purpose has been to lead the way for impact businesses, investors, entrepreneurs, and capacity-builders and catalyze the NEXT economy; a global economy that is regenerative, just, and prosperous for everyone. Now as part of ASBN we continue to believe justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion must be at the foundation for how we conduct ourselves, our businesses, and our investments, as we cultivate and grow our community.”

“ASBC has partnered with business organizations and companies to advocate for solutions and policies that support an equitable, sustainable, just economy. We have been a multi-issue, membership organization advocating on behalf of all sectors, sizes, and geographies of industry,” said Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and CEO of ASBC and now CEO and board chair of ASBN. “ASBC and its association members collectively represent over 250,000 businesses across our networks. Now as part of ASBN we continue to be coalition-focused in our innovative approach to solving pervasive and systemic issues via public policy and changing the rules of business. And with more impact investors and asset allocators in the network, we are in a better position to inform our policy work.”

“The issues on which ASBN works are climate and energy, infrastructure, circular economy including safer chemicals, and racial and economic equity, and protecting our democracy to create an economy and society in service of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Investors now have a clear option through which to engage and inform policy governing the rules by which business is done so it is better for all people and the environment as well as our economy,” said David Levine, formerly co-founder and president of ASBC, and now president of ASBN.

The resulting American Sustainable Business Network is now one of the most powerful entities to represent and advocate on behalf of a new form of capitalism which rejects a sole focus on short-term profits in favor of seeking long-term value and accounting for all stakeholders: owners, workers, families, community, environment, state, nation, and world.

ASBN rejects short-term thinking narrowly focused on just shareholder value and the daily gyrations of the stock market in favor of a capitalism based on creating long-term value and being accountable to all stakeholders: owners, workers, families, community, environment, state, nation and world.

ASBN will take the shared membership program and streamline it while opening the benefits previously available to each organization individually to the full combined membership. The existing member benefits and services will remain intact and will leverage economies of scale to offer more benefits to members going forward. No adjustments to dues are expected as a result of the merger.

ASBC and SVC will continue to exist as separate legal entities that will be managed by an umbrella organization, ASBN, that will employ staff, appoint the boards, and set priorities, budget, planning, etc. for the combined entity. The umbrella board will be initially composed of representatives from SVC and ASBC, and going forward the board will be selected without regard to prior affiliation. The bylaws of all the organizations are being revised and conformed so they work together seamlessly. An Executive Committee and other committees to carry out specific governing and planning tasks will be appointed shortly.

Michael Neuwirth
American Sustainable Business Council
mneuwirth@asbcouncil.org
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