Understanding Impact Business Models: Education

Modified on Thu, 7 Nov at 9:54 AM

What is the intent of the Impact Business Model?

How do I assess my company’s eligibility for this Impact Business Model?

What are some examples of products/services that can be reflected in the Education IBM?

My company may be eligible for this IBM. How do I open this IBM in the B Impact Assessment?

My company may be eligible for this IBM. What supporting information do we need to provide?

Concepts in the B Impact Assessment

What is the intent of the Impact Business Model?

Education and skills development is widely recognized as an instrumental tool for personal and societal development. Educational opportunities can help individuals develop critical skills that can enable better economic mobility and empower them to make informed life choices, participate productively in their communities, and drive positive social change. Education for individuals has a ripple effect on society at large, and so providing educational products and services is recognized in the B Impact Assessment as a specific Impact Business Model (IBM).

The Education Impact Business Model (IBM) is found in the Customers Impact Area of the B Impact Assessment. Companies that provide educational products and services that enhance the skills and knowledge of individuals may be eligible for the Education IBM. This can include educational materials or software that supports education, such as books, educational toys, grading software, professional development opportunities for an individual, or primary or secondary schooling.

How do I assess my company’s eligibility for this Impact Business Model?

Companies can capture their impact in this section if they:

Provide revenue-generating products and/or services whose primary intent is educational and has the objective of providing instruction, knowledge, or skill development to support customers’ personal or professional lives, and
Track and be able to report on the revenue generated by the sales of these products and/or services

Some education-related services are better captured in separate, more specific sections of the B Impact Assessment called addenda. Addenda are a predetermined set of Impact Business Models designed to capture industry-specific practices. There are several education-related addenda, such as Higher Education addendum and Education Services addendum.

These are some examples of education-related product and service offerings that would be better captured in an Education addendum:

Ongoing courses with a beginning and end date that result in a certification or offer the qualification for a new profession should be captured in the Education Services addendum.
Companies that offer accredited college or university credit or degrees should be captured in the Higher Education addendum.
Education Services: classes, courses or certifications that focus on developing specific skills
Higher Education: Higher education institutions provide a wide range of programs and courses, including undergraduate (bachelor's) degrees, graduate (master's and doctoral) degrees, as well as professional degrees in fields such as medicine, law, engineering, and business.

Addenda should be applied whenever possible as they contain specialized questions that capture impacts specific to the industry.

What are some examples of products/services that can be reflected in the Education IBM?

The following products and services are common examples captured in the Education Impact Business Model:

Educational textbooks, manuals, academic journals.
Tutoring or coaching services.
Educational technology like EdTech apps, games, or softwares.
Accredited primary and secondary schools.
Educational toys or tools for children.
Professional development or career leadership coaching.
Educational workshops, professional conferences.
Specific skills-development classes, courses or certifications (Digital Marketing course certification, French language course, etc.).
Books.
Travel companies with formal instruction by Certified tour leaders/experienced professionals (e.g., Certified tour guide, museum employees, government employees, tour guides w/ related advanced degrees).
Companies offering pre-school education if it is verified that it is an essential step mandatory to enter the educational system.

My company may be eligible for this IBM. How do I open this IBM in the B Impact Assessment (BIA)?

If you are considering opting into this IBM, you will have to answer specific questions about the impact of your product/service that will determine which Impact Business Models you see in your BIA. These questions, called gating questions, ensure that you see the content that is most relevant to your company in your assessment.

To find the gating questions for the Education IBM, navigate to the Customer Impact Area and search for the questions titled “Customer Impact Business Model Introduction” and “Customer Focus of Product or Service.” Respond “Yes” to these questions.

This will open the “Beneficial Product Type” question, which you should answer in the following way:

Please select ONE option per product line in the question ‘Beneficial Product Type’. You may select an additional option if your product line has two separate attributes.

To ensure that the Education Impact Business Model shows up, answer the following gating questions as shown in the images below. Any deviation from this will prevent the Education IBM from becoming visible in your BIA.

My company may be eligible for this IBM. What supporting information do we need to provide?

These are some examples of evidence that your company can provide during the Verification stage to confirm the applicability of the Education IBM. These examples are not exhaustive – depending on your company’s specific business model or context, the B Lab Analyst may require additional or different documentation.

General books: Provide a list or catalog of the books offered. This can be in the form of an inventory, an online store link, or an excel template specifying the categories of books sold divided by topic (science, gardening, children's books etc.)
Generic theme lectures/workshops/conferences: Documentation or materials that outline the schedule, topics, and descriptions of the lectures, workshops, or conferences organized.
Public information on social/environmental topics: blog posts, articles, or reports published by the company that demonstrate engagement and provision of public information on social or environmental topics.
Courses on general skills: Course catalog or outline that describes the general skills courses offered, such as art and craft or non-professional cooking. This can include course descriptions, objectives, duration etc.
School Textbooks: Demonstrate that the books are used in school mandated curricula.

This documentation confirms the eligibility of your company’s product/service for the Environmental Education IBM. Your company must provide a spreadsheet with revenue values associated with the beneficial products or services. Lastly, you must also provide information about whether your company measures the impact of the product/service and tracks the outcomes related to product/service to determine if it is achieving the intended positive environmental impact.

Concepts in the B Impact Assessment

New Access to Education - Students who are provided schooling who previously were not in school because the distance they had to travel, cost they had to pay, or requirements of entry prohibited the student from attending.

Clients - Buyers of your company's products and services. The terms "clients" and "customers" are sometimes used interchangeably. "Customers" generally refers to individuals, while "clients" generally refers to organizations.

Beneficiary - An individual for which your company intends to provide a positive impact through its products/services. For some companies "beneficiaries" and "customers/clients" mean the same thing, while for other companies they will be distinct.
For example, a company that sells professional development courses to individuals would consider both its customers and beneficiaries to be the individuals it serves. However, a company that sells solar-powered lanterns to NGOs in emerging markets, which in turn distributes them to underserved individuals, would consider its clients to be the NGOs and its beneficiaries to be the end-users of its product.
Near-term outcomes - This refers to the immediate or near-future results or consequences of a particular event, decision, or action. These outcomes typically occur within a relatively short period, ranging from a few days to a few months. Near-term outcomes are often tangible and measurable, and they can influence subsequent actions or decisions. Unlike outputs, which focus on what is produced/delivered, near-term outcomes focus on the impact or changes that occur as a result of the outputs. They are the effects or consequences of utilizing or implementing the outputs.
Long-term outcomes - The results or consequences that occur over an extended period, usually spanning months, years, or even decades. Long-term outcomes often have a broader impact and may be less immediately visible or measurable than near-term outcomes. For instance, long-term outcomes in the context of environmental conservation could include the restoration of an ecosystem, the reduction of carbon emissions over several decades, or the preservation of endangered species.