Digital Freedom Is a Civil Right: Building Resilience to Defend Impact

Why digital resilience matters for values-led businesses—and five practical steps B Corps can take today.

Juneteenth offers a time to reflect on how the meaning of freedom continues to evolve. And as digital systems become increasingly central to how businesses operate, resilience and security are emerging as critical components of equity-focused work.

Sharon Kennedy Vickers knows this. As the CEO of Software for Good, she’s spent years helping mission-driven organizations weather political pressure, platform shutdowns, and coordinated cyberattacks. That experience led her team to build the Digital Resilience Toolkit—a hands-on guide for organizations that can’t afford digital disruption.

This Juneteenth, we’re adapting that toolkit for B Corps—because it’s not enough to have values. You need systems that defend them when it counts, and infrastructure that holds strong when the stakes are high.

“Mission isn’t enough without muscle. Infrastructure is political. And in moments of pressure, your systems either protect your values—or they don’t. Digital resilience is how we make sure they do.”

Sharon Kennedy Vickers, CEO, Software for Good

Why Digital Resilience Matters for Values-Led Companies

The Digital Resilience Toolkit was originally built for nonprofits—organizations whose missions often put them on the frontlines of political, social, and digital risk. But increasingly, B Corps are finding themselves in that same territory.

Many Certified B Corporations engage publicly on issues aligned with their values, which can increase visibility—and therefore risk.

Like nonprofits, B Corps are values-led, which means they carry responsibilities that go beyond quarterly performance. But where nonprofits navigate donor expectations, B Corps operate in the open market—selling products, serving customers, and scaling impact at speed. That public presence expands your digital surface area, as well as the risks that come with it.

Resilience isn’t just about business continuity. It’s about defending your reputation, earning customer trust, meeting regulatory expectations, and protecting your team. It’s about making sure your infrastructure is as bold, prepared, and mission-aligned as your brand.

Digital resilience means:

• You’re not tethered to a single platform—or exposed when its rules shift, its prices spike, or its servers go dark
• Your systems are secure, redundant, and ready for the unexpected
• Your team has a plan—whether it’s an outage, a breach, or an attack with your name on it
• Your values don’t just live in your mission statement. They’re reinforced by infrastructure designed to hold under pressure.

For companies working on complex societal challenges, digital resilience helps ensure continuity, safeguard mission integrity, and support long-term impact.

Five Steps Every B Corp Can Take to Protect Digital Freedom

The Digital Resilience Toolkit isn’t a theoretical whitepaper; it’s a hands-on guide built from frontline experience. Each of the five core strategies includes simple, actionable steps and a “quick win” to help values-led businesses act, adapt, and protect what matters:

1. Minimize the data you collect

Every extra data field adds weight—and risk. If you don’t absolutely need it, don’t collect it. Less data means fewer points of failure, and fewer risks to manage.

• Quick win: Review your most-used intake form and remove one non-essential question.
• Action step: Audit the data you collect. Keep only what serves your mission, and securely delete the rest.

2. Don’t rely on a single platform

Platform lock-in is a hidden vulnerability. If your go-to tool goes down or locks you out, your operations shouldn’t grind to a halt.

• Quick win: Set up automatic monthly exports of your donor database, email list, or other critical data.
• Action step: Make a list of your most relied-on platforms. For each one, ensure you can quickly export your data, access a backup workflow, and name an alternative if it fails. Prioritize portability and ownership over convenience.

3. Build continuity plans before you need them

Resilience isn’t just about bouncing back—it’s about never going dark in the first place. When systems fail, your community still needs you.

• Quick win: Create a shared doc with emergency contact info for your key vendors and tech support.
• Action step: Identify your three most essential day-to-day operations—then plan how you’ll keep each running during a disruption. Assign backup roles, document offline procedures, and simulate a failure scenario every quarter to stay ready.

4. Lock down account access

Most breaches don’t come from sophisticated hackers; they come from reused passwords, over-permissioned accounts, and forgotten access. Protecting your accounts is one of the simplest, most powerful ways to protect your mission.

• Quick win: Turn on multi-factor authentication for your org’s email accounts—today.
• Action step: Set up a password manager, audit who has access to each system, and build a standardized process for onboarding and offboarding staff.

5. Train your team to be security-minded

Even the best tools can’t outsmart human error. A little awareness goes a long way, and your team can become your strongest line of defense.

• Quick win: Share one real phishing example with your team and walk through how to spot it.
• Action step: Add a 30-minute security session to your next team meeting and include basic digital safety in your onboarding process.
  

Digital resilience isn’t about overhauling everything overnight. It’s about taking smart, intentional steps that protect what you’re building—starting with the systems you rely on every day. These five moves are just the beginning, but they lay the foundation for something powerful.

Beyond the Basics: Long-Term Resilience for Mission-Driven Businesses

Quick wins matter. But lasting resilience requires something deeper: a cultural shift in how your business plans, invests, and collaborates around technology. These aren’t just IT concerns; they’re leadership priorities.

Here’s how values-led companies can go further:

• Bake digital resilience into your strategic planning. Treat it as a core business function—not a line item buried in operations.
• Budget for infrastructure like it’s mission-critical (because it is). Fund cybersecurity, backups, and system upgrades with the same urgency as your growth initiatives.
• Build internal fluency. Empower your team to make smart, confident tech decisions—without total dependence on outside experts.
• Share what you know. Collaborate with values-aligned businesses to exchange tools, strategies, and infrastructure.
• Choose tech partners with intention. Work with people who understand your mission and help you stay aligned as you scale.
  

“Resilience isn’t about having the biggest tech stack. It’s about making intentional choices that protect your mission when it matters most.”

Sharon Kennedy Vickers, CEO, Software for Good

Resilience isn’t just technical. It’s cultural and strategic. It’s how we future-proof the impact we’ve worked so hard to create.

Your Business Is Part of the Movement

Digital threats don’t just affect nonprofits. They impact any business that challenges injustice, operates in politically sensitive spaces, or dares to lead with values. If your company is a Certified B Corporation, you’ve already made a public commitment to transparency, equity, and accountability.

The next step is to ensure that your digital infrastructure can carry that commitment forward— especially during turbulent times.

This Juneteenth, we invite every B Corp to reflect:

• Who holds your data?
• What happens if your systems go down tomorrow?
• Are your values backed by infrastructure that can stand the pressure?

Digital resilience helps ensure that mission-driven work continues—even during disruption. In that sense, resilience isn’t just protection. It’s what allows your purpose to persist.

This article was developed in collaboration with Software for Good. B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.