Option B

What Option B does

Option B is a nonprofit online community and content platform that provides free resources, peer support, and practical advice for individuals coping with grief, hardship, and adversity. Founded in 2017 by Sheryl Sandberg following the death of her husband, it operates as an initiative of the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation and is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA with an 11–50 employee team. The platform aggregates 174+ personal stories, 14 lessons, 107+ articles, and videos distributed via a CMS-driven website and email, and hosts the closed Coping with Grief Facebook group of 25,000–28,000 members.

The platform's core technical stack is a content-publishing website paired with Facebook-hosted closed groups for moderated peer discussion, supplemented by email distribution. Notable components include the workplace bereavement toolkits, the #OptionBThere holiday campaign assets co-produced with PAPYRUS and Emily McDowell & Friends, and research collaborations with LeanIn.org and McKinsey that extend distribution into corporate and academic channels. There is no disclosed native mobile app; engagement is web- and Facebook-mediated.

Option B does not sell a product or service; its business model is foundation-funded philanthropy. Resources are provided at no cost to individuals, and the organization pursues adjacent distribution through partnerships rather than monetization. Revenue, in the commercial sense, is effectively zero — operating costs are underwritten by the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, and growth is measured in community size, content volume, and partnership reach rather than top-line financial metrics.

Name

Option B

Legal name

Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation d/b/a OptionB.Org

Website

https://optionb.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Option B is a nonprofit foundation initiative founded by Sheryl Sandberg in 2017 that provides free articles, stories, lessons, and a moderated Facebook peer-support community to help individuals cope with grief and adversity.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mental Health and Grief Support Services

NAICS

Other Individual and Family Services (624190), Individual and Family Services (6241)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Bereavement & Grief Support Services (Hospice-Affiliated/Independent) (HLADAHAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Bereavement & Grief Support Services (Family Aftercare) (HSABAFAI)

Keywords

• Grief support resources
• Resilience building tools
• Bereavement support services
• Mental health content platform
• Community grief support

Headquarters

HQ city

Palo Alto

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Foundation Funding: OptionB.Org is an initiative of the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, funded through charitable donations and foundation grants rather than commercial revenue generation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Option B is a free digital platform and nonprofit initiative that delivers resilience and grief support content, including personal stories, expert videos, actionable lessons, and community-based peer support for individuals facing loss or hardship and for those supporting them. It bundles self-care guidance, advice on showing up for others, workplace bereavement toolkits, and a Coping with Grief Facebook community into a single web destination at optionb.org.

Product overview

Option B is a single unified digital platform providing resilience and grief support resources. The core offering consists of content sections for 'Caring for Yourself,' 'Supporting Others,' and 'Navigating Grief,' supplemented by a Resource Library with 14 actionable lessons, a Community Stories collection with 174+ personal narratives, and a Bereavement at Work initiative with toolkits. The platform also maintains a Coping with Grief Facebook Group community of 25K-28K members. The Option B Book by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant extends the brand's guidance on resilience. The #OptionBThere holiday campaign offers specialized seasonal support including greeting cards created with PAPYRUS and Emily McDowell & Friends. The platform does not offer a technical product with integrations or APIs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Option B Platform Free digital platform offering practical resilience and grief support content for individuals facing hardship and for people who want to support them. Bundles the Caring for Yourself, Supporting Others, Navigating Grief, Resource Library, Community Stories, and Bereavement at Work hubs under one destination.
• Coping with Grief Facebook Group

Quantifiable outcome

• 64% of Option B community members report supporting someone else through an Option B moment in addition to caring for themselves

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• PAPYRUSminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with PAPYRUS (suicide prevention organization) for the #OptionBThere holiday card campaign. Developed greeting cards for people navigating loss during the holiday season.
• Emily McDowell & FriendsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on #OptionBThere empathy cards - greeting cards designed for people facing hardship during holidays. Cards offer meaningful alternatives to traditional holiday greetings.
• LeanIn.orgcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with LeanIn.org on research examining bereavement policies and workplace leave. Joint research with McKinsey & Company on how comprehensive bereavement policies may be essential to retaining women in the workplace, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.
• McKinsey & CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partnership with McKinsey & Company to produce data on workplace bereavement leave and its impact on employee retention, particularly for women and marginalized groups.
• FacebookcoreTechnology or IntegrationFacebook hosts Option B's Coping with Grief community group (25K+ members) and other topic-specific support groups. Platform partnership for community building and peer support.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• What's Your Grief: Long-running grief support community and content platform run by grief counselors Eleanor Haley and Litsa Williams, offering articles, podcasts, courses, and a private community. Closely comparable to Option B in mission, content-led model, and target audience of bereaved individuals and their supporters.
• Compassionate Friends: National nonprofit offering peer support for families who have experienced the death of a child, with local chapters, online community, and resource library. Directly comparable to Option B as a long-standing nonprofit bereavement support organization built around storytelling and community.
• Modern Loss: Online community and content hub for grief, founded by Rebecca Soffer and Gabrielle Birkner, blending personal essays, expert Q&As, and a moderated community. Directly comparable to Option B in combining personal storytelling with grief expert content for a primarily millennial audience.
• Refuge in Grief: Founded by grief counselor Megan Devine, offering books, courses, and a community built around the message that grief is not a problem to solve. Directly comparable to Option B in combining therapeutic credibility, content, and a non-pathologizing community for grievers.
• Hope for Bereaved: Nonprofit offering peer-facilitated support groups, grief education, and community programming for adults and children experiencing loss. Comparable to Option B as a community- and group-based bereavement support nonprofit with similar mission and resources.
• Dougy Center: Pioneering nonprofit providing peer support groups for grieving children, teens, and families, plus training and resources for grief professionals. Directly comparable to Option B as a nonprofit grief support organization, with deeper specialization in pediatric/family grief.
• The Dinner Party: Peer-support community for people in their 20s and 30s who have experienced loss, organized around in-person and virtual dinner gatherings. Closely comparable to Option B in building peer-led grief community, though more focused on a younger demographic and live meetups.

Broad incumbents

• BetterHelp: Largest online therapy platform, connecting users to licensed therapists via subscription. Comparable to Option B in serving people in emotional distress (including grief), but as a venture-backed, paid incumbent offering one-on-one clinical care rather than free content and peer community.
• Headspace Health (Headspace + Ginger): Mental wellness platform offering guided meditation, coaching, and therapy, with a strong B2B channel through employers and health plans. Comparable to Option B as a destination for resilience and mental-health support, with overlapping workplace bereavement and well-being use cases but a much larger paid product suite.

Emerging players

• Crisis Text Line: Nonprofit providing 24/7 text-based crisis support, with a trained volunteer counselor model and technology platform powering partner hotlines. Comparable to Option B as a free, digitally delivered emotional-support nonprofit, with partial overlap in grief and hardship use cases but a distinct acute-crisis orientation.

Market position

Weaknesses2 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/optionb
• Facebookfacebook.com/optionbcommunity
• Instagraminstagram.com/optionb

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Option B