Beyond business ideas that are poised for financial success, we’re most impressed by business ideas that concurrently aim to make the world a better place.

We’re not necessarily super-excited about investing in entities that claim only to be “social impact” organizations. Here’s what does excite us: great, disruptive for-profit ideas, combined with an ongoing, sustainable commitment to contribute to the betterment of the world.

This unique One Planet Group formula, which we call Innovation + Intention, stems from our belief that businesses should focus on being massively successful and generating healthy profits—while never losing sight of the fact that humans as spiritual beings are in this world to benefit others and serve humanity.

So we expect businesses we invest in to proactively pursue opportunities to make the world a better place, and do so even in the early startup stages. We want our entrepreneurs to understand and appreciate the fact that doing good in the world should not wait for some future time—it should be part of our culture from the beginning.

This is not an idea exclusive to our management team. A recent study by the Reputation Institute in New York, where 47,000 consumers across 15 markets participated, concluded that 42% of how people feel about a company is based on their perception of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

What people feel matters, because people make up the company, and people make up the society companies need to thrive. It’s also important to take this one step further and ensure that people's perceptions line up with the reality. Because, as Shoghi Effendi said, “the permanence and stability achieved by any association, group or nation is a result of – and dependent upon – the soundness and worth of the principles upon which it bases the running of its affairs and the direction of its activities.”

This setting of the common good above private interest must be a significant element in any business pitch for One Planet Group. A financially successful business is nothing if it doesn’t play a part in preserving a positive social environment for future generations.  Perhaps this is why a recent Harvard study found that CEOs who had daughters scored 11.9% higher on CSR metrics than CEO’s who did not. In fact it makes perfect sense—as the study also pointed out—that a father or mother would want to help create a world where their daughter could work free of discrimination. Any CEO who encouraged an appreciation for corporate social responsibility, particularly in reference to like-minded nonprofit organizations, would want to make sure that tomorrow’s world offered the next generation more justice, more peace and more equality than the current one.

At One Planet Group, we believe that the easiest and most effective way to do this involves small businesses and startups adopting an existing nonprofit that they feel passionate about, one whose mission they also believe in and support.

Before you think that your new venture won’t be able to afford the charitable and CSR efforts that major companies do, we would like to point out that it’s OK to start small. The idea is to make giving a part of the company’s culture from the beginning, knowing that the impact will grow as the business does.

Here are some of the ways startups and small companies can make the adopted nonprofit and their efforts part of their fabric and culture:

• Give a percentage of your equity
• Share 1% of your revenue, or if profitable, 5% of your profits. You can choose an amount that suits your company’s financial position
• Make your adopted nonprofit a part of your company by having their representatives attend your company events, meet with your staff and share stories about their efforts. This will help your team understand the impact they can have on the rest of the world, purely by virtue of the company they work for
• Hold fundraising events, invite your partners, vendors, friends—and encourage them all to contribute to your adopted nonprofit
• Encourage your employees to cash in their unused vacation and automatically donate the associated money to your partner nonprofit

As you can see, at One Planet we want our new ventures to become activists for the betterment of the world. We’d like to think that the entrepreneurs we invest in are working hard to succeed. So if a small portion of their efforts and the efforts of their teams are dedicated to the betterment of the world, we know they can have a significant positive impact.

We like to ensure that the business model, apart from being financially sound, is rooted in a culture that believes in the importance of corporate, social and environmental responsibility. We lift up and encourage business-minded people who create innovation with intention, but who also find worth in this statement from Albert Einstein:

“The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.”

We dream of a day that all companies, regardless of size, will commit to this model of universal philanthropy. By appreciating our true calling as humans, we hope the businesses we support will demonstrate a burning desire to build a crazy-successful business, while concurrently attempting to serve their kind.