Take ImpactPHL’s Best for PHL challenge and nominate your company for this cool award

ImpactPHL is a year old and one of its key initiatives in that time has been the development of Best for PHL.

With a goal of “revolutionizing capitalism,” the social enterprise advocacy nonprofit’s campaign challenges Philly companies to analyze their business practices and commit to bettering them with its guidance.

Best for PHL runs in-person workshops every two weeks. Companies who opt in the program — self-described “social enterprises” and otherwise — attend a workshop, complete a B Lab-made survey about their current business practices and receive tips on how to improve them, said Cory Donovan, program manager for ImpactPHL.

ImpactPHL is putting Best for PHL to use to select the nominees for the second annual ImpactPHL Award, a part of the Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence Awards for businesses improving the region’s economy. Last year, Message Agency, a local social enterprise that develops websites for nonprofits and foundations, took home the inaugural prize.

Think you know a business — maybe even your own? — that deserves to be honored?

Nominate them here through June 30. But there’s a catch: You must complete the Best for PHL survey to be considered.

Donovan recommends business owners who want their companies to be considered attend an in-person Best for PHL workshop — “we’re trying to build community” — though it’s not required. The last workshop before nominations close is full, but there are a few others scheduled for later on.

To be considered for the award, a company does not need to be a member of the Chamber, Donovan said.

“The goal here is to move the needle on two fronts,” Donovan said. ” One is getting the existing business community to be more aware of the impact business has, positive and negative, on the Philadelphia community. Two is to empower them to be more intentional about that impact” — which could include converting to green energy, improving their hiring practices, setting up corporate giving programs, etc.