"THE CHAIN OF GOOD" A Payment Processor Got Greedy. It Accidentally Started a Movement. (Here's How to Join.)
When a national processor blindsided Ohio outdoor retailer Roads Rivers and Trails with surprise rate hikes, the owners interviewed replacement after replacement, salt in the wound, every call. Then they opened the B Corp directory and found Giv Local, a processor that donates 20% of its revenue to causes its merchants choose. A "chain of do-good events" followed, and with thousands of Certified B Corps offering everything from processing to banking to retail, any business can forge the next link without spending an extra dollar.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- When the national processor serving Roads Rivers and Trails (RRT) — Milford, Ohio's independent specialty outdoor retailer — raised its rates without warning, owners Bryan Wolf and Emily White started the search every small business dreads. They spoke with processor after processor. Each conversation poured salt on the wound: the same opaque contracts, the same disappearing service, the same industry that treats small businesses as accounts to be extracted.
Then they opened the B Corp directory — the public registry of companies independently certified for social and environmental performance — and found Giv Local, LLC, a Pennsylvania payment processor built on a different premise: that the most invisible expense in commerce should fund the communities where transactions happen.
What happened next wasn't a sales process. Before RRT had processed a single transaction, a Giv Local co-founder drove out to Ohio and spent the day planting trees at a community event RRT organized. The partnership started with shovels, not signatures.
"The last thing I ever expected to put my name behind was a credit card processor. We'd talked to so many, and every conversation confirmed why we dreaded the industry. Then a founder from Giv Local showed up at our tree planting before we'd run a single card through them. No more faceless overlord — real people trying to make a difference. Better rates, service we'd never experienced, and our processing now funds causes we choose and track. It creates a chain of do-good events." said Bryan Wolf, Owner and Co-Founder of Roads Rivers and Trails.
This is not a round-up
The model is easy to mistake for the donation buttons and checkout round-ups shoppers see everywhere and it works nothing like them.
Round-ups ask the customer to give and vanish into totals nobody sees again. Giv Local's giving comes out of Giv Local's own pocket: the company donates 20% of its processing revenue from each merchant, not a cent from the merchant's sales or the customer's total – to the nonprofit that merchant selects, paid as an annual donation. Merchants like RRT watch the impact accumulate month over month through transparent reporting, so the giving is a number the business tracks, not a gesture it hopes happened.
Customers pay nothing extra. Merchants pay competitive rates often lower than what they left. The donation is real, recurring, and auditable by the business whose swipes generated it.
A chain with no sign-up sheet
RRT's switch — and one LinkedIn post about it — set off what Wolf calls a chain of do-good events: businesses across the outdoor industry and beyond have followed, and two more are forging their links now after learning about the model.
There is no program to enroll in and no network to join. The Chain of Good is simply what happens when businesses look at where their money already goes and route it somewhere better and that's the point.
"There are thousands of Certified B Corps, companies like RRT and like us, each with their own mission and their own way of doing good," said Sam Buckley, Co-Founder of Giv Local. "Processors, banks, retailers, suppliers, software, nearly every core service a business buys has a values-verified option most people have never heard of. A business doesn't have to change what it does to become a serious force for good. It just has to change who it does it with."
The myth: doing good is money out. The reality: it can be money in.
Most businesses assume social impact is a cost center — extra effort, extra spend. The chain's first links prove the opposite arithmetic:
- RRT's rates went down when they switched, the do-good option was also the cheaper one.
- The giving costs the merchant nothing; it comes from Giv Local's revenue.
- The impact becomes a marketing asset — a true story a business can tell customers, which is how RRT's single post recruited the next links.
- It becomes an internal asset too: employees get a workplace whose vendors match its values, and something real to rally around beyond the P&L.
- Community engagement stops being a side project and starts being embedded in operations, running automatically, every swipe.
How to forge your link this quarter
- Audit where your money already goes. Your vendors are your values. List your recurring expenses and ask which ones return anything to your community.
- Check the directories before your next vendor decision. Search the B Corp directory and the 1% for the Planet directory. From payment processing to banking to everyday supplies, verified good actors exist in almost every category — they're just rarely the loudest advertisers.
- Use the roadmap even if you skip the certificate. B Lab's B Impact Assessment is free, and any company can use it as a blueprint for treating workers, community, and environment better. Certification is the destination; the map is available to everyone.
- Make one expense do double duty. Payment processing is the lowest-hanging fruit in commerce: switching to Giv Local costs nothing, frequently saves money, and converts a pure expense into annual, trackable community funding.
- Tell the story. RRT's single post set this chain in motion. When your business does good, say so — the next link is a business that hasn't heard it's possible yet.
Learn more at givlocal.com
About Giv Local — Giv Local, LLC is a Certified B Corporation and payment processor headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania. Giv Local donates 20% of its processing revenue to nonprofits selected by its merchants — tracked monthly, donated annually — transforming everyday commerce into sustained local philanthropy. A member of 1% for the Planet. givlocal.com
About Roads Rivers and Trails — Roads Rivers and Trails is an independent specialty outdoor retailer in Milford, Ohio, serving the Cincinnati region with expert-guided gear for hiking, backpacking, paddling, and climbing. A Certified B Corporation and 1% for the Planet member, RRT sees retail as a mechanism for its mission: education, stewardship, and positive outdoor experiences. roadsriversandtrails.com
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SOURCE Giv Local
