The Ākina Impact Supplier certification process looks at your organisation’s ability to deliver positive impact through selling goods and services to other businesses.
This certification is for any impact-led organisation with products and services designed for B2B (business-to-business) sale AND wants their positive impact and readiness for contracts to be recognised.
You will trade to the following groups:
Small-Medium Businesses
Corporates
Local government
Central Government
Charities
Read our application information below to understand if it’s a good fit for your organisation, how we assess applications, and how to prepare for application.
Click the button to join the Ākina Impact Supplier certification waitlist.
Note: if you are currently an Ākina Impact Supplier (previously known as the Fwd certification) you do not need to reapply.
Eligibility and Critera
Here are all the important things you need to know before you hit that apply button.
Who can apply to be an Impact Supplier?
This includes but is not limited to Charitable Trusts, Limited Liability Companies, Incorporated Societies or Cooperatives.
This includes, but is not limited to common terms such as social enterprise, impact enterprise, community enterprise or purpose-led business
You exist for a higher purpose than shareholder returns or profit creation and can demonstrate this clearly.
You trade with business or government or other organisations (not just consumers)
We generally certify a single legal entity – the one that delivers the products and services. If you want to certify multiple legal entities (for example you have two side by side organisations or you are owned or own other organisations) you can notify us through the Profile application form and we’ll make sure to check in with you.
Certification Criteria
Our assessment criteria has three main parts
You can show that you are delivering Positive Impact
You can demonstrate that your organisation exists and is set up to create a positive social, cultural or environmental impact
You can demonstrate that your organisation actively measures, manages and improves its impact over time.
You can show that you are creating the impact that you say you are
You use your profits and resources to grow your positive impact
Your organisation sells products and services and has been trading for at least two years.
Trading is a key part of your organisations income and you want to grow this revenue stream
You use profits and resources to grow your organisation’s impact so that public benefit outweighs private gains
Your products and services are designed to be sold to business or government
You can demonstrate a strong track record of selling to other businesses or government
You have a good understanding of what size contracts you can deliver
We will look for evidence (documentation, data, completeness of information) that your organisation meets these criteria throughout the certification journey and our questions are designed to find this information out! In certain circumstances, we may make allowances for organisations at our discretion.
Still not sure if you’re eligible? Contact us at certification@akina.org.nz.
What to Expect
The Stages of Certification
You should expect the certification journey to take 1–3 months to complete, depending on how quickly and fully you fill out sections of the application form, how complex your organisation is and how responsive you are to further requests for information and progressing next steps.
Profile – you’ll fill in the initial application form
Assessment - we will assess your answers
Impact – you’ll fill in the second section of the application form
Assessment - we will assess your answers
Products/Services – you’ll fill in the third section of the application form
Interview and Assessment - we’ll assess your answers and schedule a kōrero with you
Accept/Decline of certification - if you haven’t already been declined, we’ll make an official decision here.
Onboarding - including being assigned to a Collection
Be a part of our Supplier Collections programme
Membership renewal - annually from your certification renewal date
Please note that you can be declined from continuing the certification process at any point, and we will provide any reason for this so you can improve.
What should you expect from this certification?
The main purpose of this certification is to assess and verify positive impact, to reduce the risk of green-washing or impact-washing for third-party organisations. These organisations want to purchase positive impact, but don’t necessarily have experience or capacity to assess it themselves.
Ākina certifies the creation of positive impact through business using our knowledge, experience and trust in understanding this complex space to the best of our ability. We are always learning, so the process will always reflect the latest best practice.
It’s important to note that this is not a certification that proves you are a social enterprise, but is a certification of positive impact. Of course, social enterprises are welcome to apply and will likely find the application process smooth sailing.
This certification doesn’t guarantee that you will receive contracts or work from Ākina Impact Buyers or other buying organisations. We create the conditions for impactful deals, and support where we can, but don’t hold sales as our responsibility.
The certification is procurement focussed (business-to-business), with the intention to generate meaningful relationships between buyers and suppliers
The standards of certification are in line with international best-practice and we will update our process to reflect learnings
Impact and how it is managed is the primary criteria of certification
We are transparent about what we are looking for and how we make decisions
We recognise that procurement uses other stages of assessment, and are not replacing the due diligence a buying organisation will usually complete.
We are not comparing one way of creating impact versus another
Profile Form
Our application process has three forms. As you pass the criteria for each form, you will be able to fill out the next section.
You can apply with the Profile form straight away through the apply now button above!
Information about the Profile Form
Contact information for the person applying on behalf of the organisation
Operational information like your legal structure, industry, number of employees
Your website and social media
Any other relevant certifications you have
Where you are at on managing modern slavery, and carbon in your supply chain
Financial information such as 2 years of revenue and how much you get from trading
Where and how your purpose or mission is protected in legal documents or publicly demonstrated
Accepting our terms of service for Ākina and being an Impact Supplier
If you are a registered charity, or you are 100% owned by a registered charity, you won’t be asked for financial information, as we will look this up using your charity number.
Otherwise, we will ask for the last two years of revenue and what types of income you received each year
Your organisation’s logo as a .png file format, and a square shape
Documentation of where your purpose is demonstrated or locked into your governing documents. For example, your constitution, shareholder agreements
Your last two years of revenue, and what types of revenue this is made up of (grants, trading activity etc)
Certificates or evidence for any other impact-based certifications you have
Other operational documents you would like to share with us.
For the profile section, we are looking for evidence of trading activity - a key criteria - and operational information where we can check your business history and what sort of business you are.
We require your purpose to be publicly demonstrated, or locked in your governing documentation. For example your charities deed, constitution, or shareholder’s agreement if you have shareholders),
If your purpose is not locked in governing documentation within one year from certification, we may need to revoke your certification. We are happy to support you with this and have resources available to share with you.
We’ll also be looking to verify any other impact-based memberships of certifications you have (e.g. Living Wage, B Corp)
Impact Form
There will be a pause so we can review your first form. If you are successful through the first section, you will be able to fill out the Impact section. This whole section is important to cover off the impact criteria, and we will assess your answers for everything.
Information about the Impact Form
We have three streams of impact in the form - which we consider to be the core ways of delivering impact through business. You will be walked through a process to see which streams of impact you will need to answer questions for. You may need to answer one stream, or multiple streams if your model is more complex.
Delivering impact through donating profits or revenue to another organisation
Delivering impact through employment and/or training
Delivering impact through products and/or services
For each stream, you will be asked to answer questions and provide evidence of your impact in this space.
If you feel that you don’t fit in any of the streams at all, it’s best to reach out to us at certification@akina.org.nz
After this information, you will be asked about your level of “impact management” activity. This means what work your business does to deliver, track, communicate and improve your impact. Based on your answers to this question, you may be asked to provide more information and actual numbers on the breadth and depth of your impact. You will only get asked these questions if your choices indicate you should be able to answer them.
NOTE – if you are not asked these questions, (and you are successful in the certification process) you will be required to increase your impact management activity within 1 year to a higher level of activity. If you don’t, we may revoke your certification.
What your core way of delivering impact is, and who you deliver it for (your impact model)
The level that your impact is embedded or built into your business model so that it can’t be removed.
Your level of organisational capability to talk about, measure and improve your impact
The breadth and depth of your impact as it currently is at application
Evidence of payment to a charity (profit donation stream) for example a bank statement, receipt
Examples of what has been achieved by the charity/s, thanks to your donations (profit donation stream)
How many people have been through your employment or training from your beneficiary group (employment or training streams)
Information about how your business is set up to deliver your impact (all streams)
Your impact model, theory of change or other visual diagram that shows your impact
Data that you have been collecting on the impact you are achieving if you have it
Your latest impact report if you have one
Product Form
You’re through the hard bit! This section covers off the products and services that you would like us to know about, and to be published in our directory. You can list multiple services, but for certification we suggest you start with 1-3 services, and they must be targeted at businesses or organisations.
Information about the Products and Services Form
These questions all need to be answered per service.
The name of the product or service and what it is
Examples of clients you have delivered this too previously
What ranges of contract value you can deliver
The contact person for this particular service
Images of the contact person and product or service
We want to make sure that your products and services are designed for businesses. We also want to know that you have experience delivering them in this way and understand your organisation’s capability to deliver.
If you’re successful through this form, we’ll reach out for a phone/video chat to get to know you a bit more. It gives both of us the chance to ask any other questions too. Then we’ll decide if you will be certified!
Key contact information, including a headshot image in png format, for each product/service you want to list.
Examples of large customers (250 staff + ) you have delivered for in the past
Minimum and maximum contract values you will deliver in $ and examples of what this looks like
Your ideal range of contract value in $
Evidence of catalogues you are on
Any collateral that talks about your products
Join the waitlist
The Ākina Impact Supplier certification programme is undergoing a review. This review aims to make the programme more efficient, robust, and provide an opportunity to uncover new funding opportunities.
During this period, the Ākina Impact Directory will remain accessible to showcase the positive impacts created by our certified Impact Suppliers. However, Ākina will not be accepting new applications for certification during this period.
We look forward to welcoming new certified Impact Suppliers to the programme in the future. Sign up to our mailing list to learn when applications re-open.