Benefit Reports

Annual Benefit Report 2023

Global Development Enterprise, LLC

Introduction

Global Development Enterprise, LLC (GDE) is a benefit corporation committed to creating positive social and environmental impact through its operations, products, and services. This Annual Benefit Report for the year 2024 outlines our progress in pursuing our general and specific public benefit purposes, as well as our overall social and environmental performance assessed against the B Impact Assessment (BIA) standard developed by B Lab.

General Public Benefit

In 2024, GDE continued to pursue its general public benefit purpose of creating positive social and environmental impact by providing core leadership skills training and mentorship programs to social entrepreneurs. Our programs empowered change-makers to become more effective leaders and drive positive change within their organizations and communities. By equipping participants with essential change leadership skills, GDE indirectly contributed to the creation of general public benefit larger than its own direct actions by empowering and enabling social entrepreneurs to amplify their impact and better serve their stakeholders.

Specific Public Benefit

GDE’s specific public benefit purpose is to “Build the best leadership training products, align teams, and use business to inspire and implement transilience solutions to 21st Century challenges.” In 2024, we pursued this purpose through various initiatives:

1. ACCELERATE Program: We continued to deliver our tailored negotiation skills training and mentorship program, combining self-assessment, goal-setting, and personalized mentorship to help participants enhance their impact and influence within the United Nations system.
2. ACTIVATE: In. 2022 GDE launched the ACTIVATE 3-Month Internship program, providing opportunities for young professionals to gain practical experience in social entrepreneurship and develop their leadership skills while contributing to our mission. Core components of this program have evolved into segments of training on “Transilience Theory of Change” elements that are being further developed in 2023 including the TQ.20  and TQ.LAMP tools for cultivating core leadership communications and self-governance capacities.
3. Transilience Theory of Change Development: GDE continues to develop an innovative Theory of Change and framework for understanding and catalyzing transformative change in complex systems. The unique component of this is that we emphasize the “how to’s” of change and rely on existing structures and organizations such as BLab to perfect their assessments. We hope in the future that they will also update elements they measure as integral to their Theory of Change.

Assessment of Social and Environmental Performance

GDE has applied the BLab’s Impact Assessment (BIA) standard to evaluate its overall social and environmental performance. In 2023, we maintained our strong performance across their five key impact areas plus we have one of our own: social technology:

1. Governance: GDE continued to prioritize transparency, stakeholder engagement, and ethical decision-making in its governance practices.
2. Interns: We fostered a supportive and inclusive workplace culture, providing opportunities for professional development and ensuring fair labor practices.
3. Community: GDE actively engaged with local and global communities, collaborating with stakeholders to address social and environmental challenges.
4. Environment: We minimized our environmental footprint through sustainable practices, including augmenting our electric usage with solar power collection and promoted environmental stewardship throughout our operations including promotion of NGOs and social enterprises that focus on permaculture and sustainable processes.
5. Customers: GDE continued to deliver high-quality, impactful products and services, measuring both near-term and long-term outcomes to ensure lasting positive effects for our beneficiaries.
6. Technology: As we tread further into a globalizing and tech-leveraged world, understanding and appropriate use of technology tools are essential to those on the social change front-lines. To optimize capacity, we also provide orientation and introductory basic training for use of AI. Many of today’s small enterprises, for and not-for profit, most need to benefit from today’s technologies.

Challenges and Future Outlook

While GDE made significant progress in 2023, we acknowledge the tail of ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and resource constraints as a growing startup. Despite these obstacles, we remain committed to our public benefit purposes and will continue to adapt and innovate to deliver value to our stakeholders.

Looking ahead, GDE will focus on scaling our impact through strategic partnerships, expanding our reach, and promoting our “Transilient Leadership” approach throughout our programs based on stakeholder feedback and impact assessments. 

We will also continue to take our Transilience Theory of Change into the public sphere to better address the optimization of human capacities and potential and as essential to addressing many of the growing social challenges in our globalizing and tech-leveraged worlds our contribution to the driving transformative social and environmental changes to the global community..

Conclusion

Global Development Enterprise, LLC remains dedicated to using business, and especially business leadership as a force for good, balancing profit with purpose, and creating lasting positive impact. We are proud of our achievements in 2023 and look forward to continuing our journey as a benefit corporation, working towards a more just, sustainable, and resilient future for all.