Vision
We dream of a cohesive and energized Social Good Sphere that maximizes collective impact for each one of us and our planet.
We envision a world where data-driven insights inspire forms of management and engagement that foster positive economic and social transformation across the globe.
Mission
thedotgood’s mission is to multiply opportunities for engagement and interaction in the Social Good Sphere. We highlight good governance and innovation and we connect those who put positive impact and social profit first.
Story
There was a moment when we considered it no longer possible to embrace all the different categories of organizations populating the so-called non-profit sector. In fact, the “non-profit” ideals were overtaken by a new reality. A new paradigm was taking shape and form; the social good sphere would be its new geography as we no longer faced a field or a sector. At the core of this new geography, there was a positive objective: social good, by all means. Intuitively, to many of the people working here, there is an understatement: A wish to deliver social profit. To achieve this, it was clear that the way one imagines operating an entity can take many legal framings, structures, and grouping.
To us at thedotgood, there was an obvious way to describe them: the good dots. And it was as clear that we wanted to connect more dots with each other and beyond. In 2021, after months of brainstorming and hard work, thedotgood was born as the name for our new platform where we will do our utmost to connect the good dots.
Jean-Christophe Nothias
Jean-Christophe Nothias is the founder and editor of thedotgood, an independent media platform publishing annual rankings of the world’s leading Social Good Organizations (SGOs) — a term thedotgood uses for NGOs, Benefit Corporations, Triple Bottom Line companies (TBLs), and other hybrid entities combining not-for-profit and for-profit approaches. A journalist by training and a media publisher by passion, his conviction is that the social good sphere is still in its infancy and will inevitably transform our societies beyond imagination.
Each year, thedotgood publishes the World 200 SGOs, an independent global ranking evaluating organizations on the strength of their impact, innovation, and governance. Alongside the flagship global list, thedotgood also produces regional rankings — including an annual list of Brazil’s leading SGOs — extending the same methodology to a wider set of geographies. True to the platform’s mantra, we connect the good dots: the rankings exist not to gatekeep, but to multiply engagement and interaction across the social good sphere.
His journalism career spans several decades and outlets, including Le Monde, Mediapart, Le Jour, and Actuel, before he founded and edited The Global Journal, a Geneva-based publication that produced the first-ever global ranking of NGOs in 2012. That work continued under NGO Advisor from 2015, and evolved into thedotgood in 2021 — a continuous, decade-plus effort to observe, evaluate, and report on organizations prioritizing social impact.
> Jean-Christophe Nothias, founder and editor of thedotgood, participating in a panel during the Global Geneva Seminaries, Geneva. ©IHEID
