Bryan Nurnberger was ecstatic when state lawmakers approved a bill making it easier for his Norwalk-based nonprofit to work jointly with his New York-based benefit corporation.
It had been a three-year journey for Nurnberger and Simply Smiles, his nonprofit that provides holistic services to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota.
“We started doing the (benefit corporation) coffee business three years ago and we ran up against tax issues as a charity because we sold too much coffee,” Nurnberger said by phone from the reservation.
“As a nonprofit, you”™re not supposed to become a business that sells products. The IRS put a dollar and cent threshold of $30,000 on us. We exceeded that profit quickly, so we were forced to spin off the coffee company into a separate sister organization. Our intention with the coffee company wasn”™t to maximize profits. It was to have a business to funnel into our charity.”
The benefit corporation law is effective in 22 states, according to an online information center. Six other states have passed the bill, pending their governors”™ signatures, and 12 states”™ legislatures have introduced the bill.
Despite the limited telecommunications on the Indian reservation, Nurnberger is hoping to bridge that gap by providing the Sioux with networks and resources that enable them to be independent through the proceeds of his coffee distributing business.
Simply Smiles started in 2003. Last year, Nurnberger and his father, David, launched a benefit corporation that sells coffee beans grown by farmers in the remote mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, to help the impoverished families and tribe. For every bag sold, Simply Smiles provides Mexican farmers and their families with three meals a day. The proceeds also provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and jobs for the people they serve on the Indian reservation in South Dakota.
Simply Smiles Product Corp. is the benefit corporation that Nurnberger spearheaded with his father and one staff member. The corporation is the nonprofit”™s coffee distributing arm, which is currently headquartered in New York, where the B corporation bill is already signed into law. Nurnberger anticipates moving his small benefit corporation to Connecticut in October.
“We can now consolidate and transfer our New York corporation into Connecticut and not straddle two states,” Nurnberger said. He said of those that passed the bill, “Connecticut is the only one that in its law has a legacy provision. The legacy provision says that after two years of operation as a B corp, if all your shareholders agree, you can lock in your organization as a benefit corp forever.”
This provision in the bill will allow his benefit corporation to live beyond his time and create a lasting social impact, he said. The provision could also encourage those interested in operating a benefit corporation to start one in Connecticut, creating jobs.
“Theoretically, someone can say, ”˜I”™m going to create a B corp and use the good will and marketing of a B corp to build something, and then dissolve the B corp to make it a for-profit business,” Nurnberger said. “This law makes sure it will always be a benefit corp.”
Through Simply Smiles, the organization has hired volunteers and raised enough funds from its coffee business to provide 30,000 meals for people in Oaxaca per year. This summer, Nurnberger said he”™s spending five months on the South Dakotan reserve working on building two homes. The nonprofit will run summer camps for the kids and build a 78-foot greenhouse and teach the Sioux community about farming fresh vegetables.
“We have a barn out back and myself and my staff sleep out there,” Nurnberger said. “There”™s no heat. There”™s no running water. It”™s very primitive. But through our willingness to live like this, it”™s allowed us to be accepted here in this reservation.”
Simply Smiles uses profits from its coffee benefit corporation to help people on the Indian reservation meet their daily living needs and learn skills that make them employable, Nurnberger said. Only five people out of the 200 in the community have jobs, and all of them are currently living on social services, welfare and food stamps.
“We”™ll do what we need to do to make the situation right, and one day we can say we”™ve moved onto another place because this town and reservation will have what it needs,” Nurnberger said. “But we”™ll come back to this place to attend weddings and graduations and Christmas dinners because we know we have built relationships that will last.”
