Events like these are becoming an increasingly common part of the DC tech scene, where there is an explosive rise in the number of local tech startups with some tremendous talent.

We spent the afternoon debating various aspects of our site, picking apart the user experience and usability of some of our features bit by bit:

We’re all very thankful for their time and expertise, and truly blown away by how, well, cool they all are. At the end of the day, we left with 10 pages of notes on technical and usability improvements to implement, which we’re just about to wrap up development on.

So keep an eye out, and check out these guys’ projects.

B Corps are “new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.” The premise is this: Unlike non-profits, B Corps value market-based principles to grow their business – instead of relying on grants and charity they build their business to scale and achieve liquidity in a competitive marketplace. But unlike traditional corporations, B Corps’s social mission is designed to come first.

B Corps believe that a legitimate social agenda does not have to suffer under the interests of a company’s shareholders. Is this belief realistic?

From our conversations with the B Corp team, it seems like a very tricky balancing act. Even if a team builds a company with a social agenda in mind, there are two big problems that often arise:

1. Under New Management – if a company is especially successful, its founders sometimes exit under a sale, merger or IPO. Whoever the new management is, they might have a completely different attitude to running the business. This problem makes it dangerous to help socially progressive companies because you believe in their cause. The more successful the business becomes, the more likely the company is to change its agenda once its founders secede.

1. Shareholder Primacy – if a company starts to take on investment and divest equity, all of a sudden these stakeholders will have input into the core business model, and their interest will be to maximize their return on investment, whether or not it comes at the cost of parts of the company’s social agenda. This problem is especially tricky because our country’s legal regime is designed to protect shareholder interests above anything else, making social goals secondary to profit-maximizing ones.

The B Corp solution is to include in the corporate governance documents a legal framework for balancing a social agenda with a purely economic one. That way the agenda survives new management and can be judiciously balanced against shareholder primacy.  The proof of whether this works is in the pudding, so check out the legal vision section of their website to see how it works.

As a business dedicated to changing the way non-profits and campaigns raise money, we believe Giv.to is a great example of what makes B Corps work. In our case, we’re lucky to both have a solid business case to make to our clients (causes who want to multiply their fundraising power) and also an agenda of building communities of activists around the world. More important, we think we have a strategy where the more business we do, the better the world will be. It’s a great feeling to be part of such a business.

If you think your business fits into such a mold, check these guys out and download the B Corp Intro Package.

If you haven’t checked our iStrategyLab’s work, take a look at this video they recently put together for the Capital Area Food Bank.

The guys at iSL have some really great and creative ideas to help causes promote themselves and I think their work speaks for itself If you’re looking for some video, marketing or strategy work done, you should definitely talk to them.

In addition to Giv.to, AddThis and Razoo spoke about their tools to help causes fundraise. AddThis is hands down the best tool for reposting content to social networks. AddThis offers an easy to use widget that you can add to your site or your blog. It encourages uses to tell their friends about your content, making sure people hear about your cause.

Razoo is working to make fundraising free of processing fees, by offsetting credit card transaction fees with grants from foundations. They’re also working hard to create a portal for social interaction with causes.

We at Giv.to discussed fundraising over Twitter using the Giv.to action bar. Let us know what you think!

ReThink Fundraising from iStrategyLabs on Vimeo.

“How do you do online fundraising in a down economy?”

We have been having a lot of conversations recently with people who are looking to take their online fundraising to the next level with web 2.0 tools & tech.

So- we thought it would be fun to host a webinar showcasing some easy ways to build a cohesive strategy. Each presentation will be a maximum of 10 minutes, with time for Q & A at the end.

• Razoo: “The free way to find, mobilize and connect with donors”
• Giv.to / Contribune: “The smart way to multiply your fundraiser power over social networks”
• AddThis by Clearspring: “The hands down easiest way to make your content social online”

The Webinar is at 11:00am on Friday, October 23rd. Check out the official invite for more details.

In addition to this blog, we have some exciting new developments to share with you over the coming weeks.  These include a refresh to Giv.to’s user interface and an exciting new tool that we believe will change the way organizations raise money over social networks.  Be sure to check back or subscribe to our RSS feed to be kept up to date.

We also invite you to join our Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter!