The association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) is the nation’s leading voice of microenterprise development, serving the needs of U.S. microentrepreneurs who lack access to traditional sources of business education or capital. AEO empowers its nearly 500 member organizations as they start, stabilize, and expand their businesses by providing training, knowledge sharing, communications, and federal and state public policy and advocacy efforts. It is the only national member-based association in the microenterprise development industry and supports business owners in locales ranging from urban to rural. Beyond practitioners, current members include advocates, public agencies, funders, individuals, and others who share in AEO’s mission. AEO envisions a business environment where every entrepreneur in the United States has access to resources and services for creating wealth, assets, and healthy communities. 

B Lab is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create a new sector of the economy that harnesses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. This sector will be comprised of a new type of corporation—the B Corporation—which creates economic opportunity, builds strong communities, and preserves a healthy environment. B Corps meet higher standards of accountability, transparency, and social and environmental performance. As of September 2009, there are over 220 certified B Corporations from over 50 industries in 28 states (representing 3,500 employees) with more than $1 billion in revenues and $7 billion in assets under management. B Lab’s objective is to help B Corps become legally recognized by the states, tax preferred by the IRS, and valued by employees, investors, and consumers. B Lab also re-purposes the standards used to certify B Corps to help investors make high impact investments and governments implement policies to support sustainable business—1,000+ companies are using the B Impact Rating System to benchmark social and environmental performance.


Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Business for Shared Prosperity

Business for Shared Prosperity is a growing network of forward-thinking business owners, executives, and investors committed to building enduring economic progress on a strong foundation of opportunity, equity, and innovation. Business for Shared Prosperity informs, mobilizes, and publicizes business support for public policies and business practices that expand economic opportunity, reduce inequality, promote innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability, and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure for long-term success. Our first Business for a Fair Minimum Wage campaign organized unprecedented business support for raising the minimum wage and played a lead role in winning the 3-year federal minimum wage increases beginning in 2007. Business for Shared Prosperity continues educating and advocating for raising the minimum wage to a living wage at the state and federal level. Business for Shared Prosperity is also engaged in support of financial reform and tax reform to make our economy fairer, stronger, and more sustainable. Business for Shared Prosperity places a heavy emphasis on media work to reach wide audiences and spotlight business support for vital policies in public debate.

California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO)

CAMEO is a statewide association of organizations, agencies, and individuals dedicated to furthering microenterprise development in California. CAMEO’s mission is to increase opportunities for low-income people and communities by building the capacity of California’s microenterprise organizations. CAMEO improves the working environment for microenterprise by educating the public and advocating on the federal, state, and local level on behalf of microenterprise development. 

Fair Trade Federation

The Federation envisions a just and sustainable global economic system in which purchasing and production choices are made with concern for the well-being of people and the environment, creating a world where all people have viable economic options to meet their own needs. 

To this end, the Federation aims to complement the work done by so many great organizations to support marginalized communities in North America by focusing on organizations which create market access for the most economically and socially marginalized in our world: artisans and farmers in the developing world. 

Under the two parts of our mission, strengthen and promote, we provide a variety of services. To help strengthen members, we offer in-person and web-based trainings, tools to share best practices, updates on relevant legislation, style and trend information, and other resources. To promote Fair Trade and fully committed Fair Trade Organizations, the Federation provides marketing tools, conducts media outreach, engages in public education, and works to capitalize on any opportunity to tell members’ stories. We also seek to inspire other businesses to adopt Fair Trade principles and practices. 

Foresight Sustainable Business Alliance

The Foresight Sustainable Business Alliance (FSBA) supports businesses in the greater Chicago region dedicated to transforming the economy into a more profitable, environmentally respectful, and socially responsible system.

This mission is achieved through:

• Connect (Events foster networking and resource sharing)
• Learn (Seminars and Working Groups enable more informed decision making)
• Do (Implement sustainability principles into operations, products, and services)
• Advocate (Committees protect member interests by promoting local and regional policies)

The FSBA, a program of the Foresight Design Initiative, is open to any enterprise or organization committed to balancing social, economic, and environmental (i.e. triple bottom line) values.

Foresight seeks to improve the quality of urban life through transformation design, a process which seeks holistic and lasting solutions to sustainability challenges. Through three program areas––the Business Alliance, Consulting, and Education––Foresight empowers diverse communities to make decisions that improve the quality of life without sacrificing the needs of future generations.

The Green Chamber of Commerce is a business network dedicated to promoting the success of its members, supporting the development of sustainable business practices, and advocating for a green public policy. The Green Chamber's membership is comprised of over 160 green businesses and represents various industry sectors including building and design, banking, health, socially responsible investing, media, legal, and renewable energy. Currently, the majority of Green Chamber members are based in the San Francisco Bay Area. An expansion plan is under way to create a strong network of and political voice for socially and environmentally responsible businesses nationwide.


Green Chamber of the South

The Green Chamber of the South serves as a conduit between the companies, government entities, non-governmental organizations, and local communities working to establish a hub for green commerce in the Southeast. The Green Chamber of the South’s 100+ members are engaged in such diverse industries as manufacturing, energy, trade, education, government, and communications and marketing, yet they are all attune to the region’s environmental challenges—water scarcity, transportation, and rising energy costs. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the Green Chamber of the South encourages innovation and adoption of clean technology and supports sustainable businesses throughout their growth cycle with multiple resources, including educational programming and networking opportunities.


Investors' Circle

The Investors’ Circle Network, a 501 c-4, is comprised of angel investors, professional venture capitalists, foundations, family offices, and others who are using private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable economy. Since 1992, Investors’ Circle has facilitated the flow of over $133 million into more than 200 companies and small funds addressing social and environmental issues.

Currently, IC members tend to invest in the following categories: energy & environment; food & organics; education & media; health & wellness; and community & international development.

Investors’ Circle has approximately 225 members in 26 states and 4 countries. All members are fully-accredited investors or investor representatives. The social capital of Investors’ Circle is its greatest asset. Members value highly the network of personal and professional relationships that has evolved through IC. Significant co-investment relationships and other partnerships have emerged among members.


Manhattan Chamber of Commerce

Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC) is a non-profit member organization, which serves as a primary resource for small and mid-size firms doing business in Manhattan. The MCC represents the voice of over 100,000 companies in Manhattan and partners with over 300 diverse business organizations. The Chamber supports the business community by advocating for positive business legislation, hosting 3-4 monthly networking events and seminars, and expanding marketing opportunities and international outreach. MCC’s mission is to create a positive business environment to foster job development and promote business growth. MCC is also focused on providing opportunities for women and minority business owners, financial literacy, and workforce development.


New Voice of Business

New Voice of Business promotes economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the United States. Its mission is to inform, engage, and mobilize an influential network of business people—a unified new voice of business to advocate for a sustainable economy and encourage triple bottom line business practices. New Voice's membership is comprised of roughly 2,000 individual business professionals, most of whom are entrepreneurial leaders of small and growing businesses representing a cross section of industries and functional areas in addition to general management. New Voice educates its members and the general public through seminars with leaders in the sustainability movement. It provides its members with opportunities to engage in policy and bring a longer term business perspective to the major issues of the day. New Voice's focus in 2009 is on championing an energy policy that meets the challenge of global warming while promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.


Progressive Business Leaders Network (PBLN)


The aim of PBLN is to help invent a more sustainable economy that fosters lasting and shared prosperity as well as social and environmental justice. This ambition requires business leaders to engage in a new way with each other and with shapers of public policy around the challenges of our times.  Short-sighted business practices have damaged our economy and communities. If “business as usual” continues, we are concerned that the good jobs, health, and opportunity that define the American ideal are unnecessarily at risk. PBLN seeks to enrich the public understanding of what is “good for business” as well as what is good for the planet, good for our communities, and good for our country.

We believe “progressive” means supporting ideas that are backed by research, data, and insight that run ahead of conventional wisdom. We believe “sustainable” means fostering economic growth that brings shared and lasting prosperity and also advances social and environmental justice. We measure our success by our impact on those individuals who participate and by our impact on the world around us.  Our two annual conferences in Boston and Washington, D.C. educate business leaders and provide a forum for discussion across industries.

Responsible Wealth

Responsible Wealth is a fair economy movement support organization, providing media capacity, face-to-face economic literacy education, and training resources to organizations and individuals who work to address the widening income and asset gaps in the United States. With a broad and deep constituency that includes both those directly hurt by economic disparity and those who benefit from it, Responsible Wealth’s work is grounded in the belief that the United States would be a far more democratic, prosperous, and caring community if the vast gap between the wealthy and everyone else were narrowed. By uniting organized labor, religious communities, and civic organizations to serve as a countervailing force to the power of concentrated corporate influence and wealth, Responsible Wealth aspires to build communities that are socially and environmentally sustainable and a society in which values, not profits alone, guide economic decisions.

• Providing forums, information, and initiatives that enable leaders to work together to transform the way the world does business
• Sharing best practices and resources that help companies generate healthy profits and serve the common good
• Supporting a diverse community of leaders who can effect positive social change through business
• Creating a vibrant community that nourishes deep and lasting friendships
• Producing unique conferences that promote the exchange of ideas and encourage the development of relationships and partnerships
• Offering programs that support members' spiritual, professional, and personal development

South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce

The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is a statewide member advocacy organization primarily working to make state government more small-business friendly. The Small Business Chamber is both non-partisan and non-profit; we are not affiliated with any other chamber of commerce.  Our Board of Directors consists of trade association representatives and individual business owners.

Since our beginning in February 2000, we have strived to represent the general interests of small business in state government although from time to time we do take on local and federal issues. Taxes, health insurance, workforce development, economic development, energy, utility rates, workers’ compensation insurance, and government procurement policies are some of the issues we address to benefit small business.  Our success is due not only to our legislative and regulatory efforts in Columbia and Washington DC, but also because of the active participation of our members. We use a full array of traditional and social media to keep the public informed of our position on issues.

Sustainable Business Alliance

The Sustainable Business Alliance represents a diverse community of over 150 sustainable businesses from the San Francisco Bay area. It supports a just and thriving green economy in the region by promoting sustainable business practices, nurturing the environmentally committed business sector, advocating for progressive policies and programs that bolster the green economy, invigorating the local green economy by promoting business collaboration between and partnership among members, and providing member services, such as networking and educational events.

Sustainable Business Council Montana

To foster our vision, we provide education and technical assistance to help businesses, organizations, and individuals in Montana adopt sustainable practices that protect and enhance the environment, the region’s economy, and our local communities.

In this role, we will work to:
• Develop greater community awareness and acceptance of sustainable business and consumption practices;
• Increase the number of existing businesses and organizations in the Missoula area committed to sustainable business practices, making these practices the norm;
• Raise the level of sustainable business practices used by SBC members and others in the community;
• Foster the creation of new sustainable businesses and organizations in the Missoula area;
• And improve community support and patronage of SBC members and local sustainable businesses, making
sustainable purchasing the norm.

Sustainable Business Council has also developed a revolutionary tool to help create local living economies at the network level. Our Strive Towards Sustainability (STS) Workshop & Eco-Seal Program is designed to give communities around the country a way to fight greenwashing, implement high-level sustainability into business practices, and support healthy local economies.



Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR)

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) is an association of businesses dedicated to the “multiple bottom line.”  VBSR members recognize that profitability is essential to business, but they are equally concerned about the “other bottom lines”—their contribution to the quality of workplace, environment, and community.  VBSR has over 1200 members from almost every region and business sector in the state. Through its affiliate, VBSR-Research and Education Foundation, VBSR puts on educational programs and conferences, engages in public policy initiatives, conducts research, and produces educational materials for its members.

VBSR’s mission is to advance a business ethic that values multiple bottom lines—economic, social, and environmental.

We do this through:

1. Education--Bringing together resources and information to help our members to meet their own goals for improving business practices and solving social, environmental, and economic problems.
2. Public Influence--Representing a socially responsible business ethic to the larger community, including news media and legislative bodies, to foster positive change and resist exploitation of our people, our state, and our planet.
3. Workplace Quality--Fostering a work environment and economic climate that enable every worker to earn a fair income safely, to contribute his or her labor to a high quality product or service, and to work and live with dignity and respect.

h for the Common Good