Your Better Business Bureau, advancing
marketplace trust since 1912.
Founded in the Twin Cities,
BBB's vision is a marketplace where buyers and sellers trust each other.
BBB's Educational Foundation, the
Institute for Marketplace Ethics,
focuses on at risk groups, such as seniors, students, service members, veterans and their families.
BBB's foundation was launched locally
as the Corporation for Consumer Affairs in 1977.
Just prior to the Centennial for the BBB, which was in 2012,
we rejuvenated our foundation.
With funding and support from partners, from consumers, from businesses,
we've been able to get down much deeper with our seniors and our military community
and our emerging populations, which has been a great.
BBB's Senior Outreach Program visits senior centers and communities and helps our seniors avoid scams and become wiser consumers.
It helps me understand what I
should be getting involved in, and what I shouldn't be.
Our local Military Line Program connects with service members and veterans
at military expos, installations and job fairs in Minnesota and North Dakota.
We also offer support to veterans at stand-down events
and educate military families on how to
safely navigate today's fast-paced economy.
For us, the opportunities with
the Better Business Bureau
they get the word out about scams being
perpetrated against veterans and their families
specifically to the spouses
of the deployed and the children
So for us to have that as a tool and a resource to be able to communicate the messages of
Better Business Bureau to the veterans
of the Twin Cities it's just a great resource
for our company because we're better able to protect the best interests of our clients.
BBB's Educational Foundation also honors exceptional businesses with the BBB Torch Awards for Ethics each year
and awards Student of Integrity
Scholarships to deserving high school seniors.
The Torch Awards to me represent ethics, truthfulness, hard work,
what a company aspires to be.
BBB looks to the future through our In Pursuit of Ethics program
which interactively teaches students about ethical decision-making.
We work with many partners, such as Best Prep and Junior Achievement
to show youth both the
positive and negative influences in the marketplace.
We do many things at BBB, but there's so much more to do.
Like expand our outreach to students, emerging populations in rapidly growing segments of our communities.
Our goal is to promote and celebrate marketplace ethics
and keep at-risk groups, our friends,
neighbors and families, and those that serve and have served,
safe from schemes that seek to harm them.
