All of this stands in stark contrast to the behavior of many tech start-ups these days. With money having flowed freely into tech enterprises in recent years, businesses like the ride-hailing company Uber, the room-rental start-up Airbnb and the online storage service Dropbox have all raised billions from venture capitalists and big money managers, with the aim of large profits.

Becoming a public benefit corporation does not prevent Kickstarter from selling itself or going public, and it remains a for-profit entity. Still, as a B Corp and now a public benefit corporation, legal experts say, Kickstarter is holding itself to a particularly high standard of transparency.

“A public benefit corporation is only required to report its social and environmental performance to shareholders every two years,” said Kyle Westaway, a lawyer based in New York and managing partner of his own practice, who works with public benefit corporations. “But Kickstarter chose to go above and beyond and report to the public every year as a B Corp. This represents a real commitment to transparency.”

Kickstarter, which is based in New York, was founded by Mr. Chen, Mr. Strickler and Charles Adler, who is now an adviser, in 2009. Its site lets anyone pitch projects to the public to raise money, and Kickstarter earns fees from every successfully funded project on its platform. Kickstarter has helped fund high-profile products like the “Veronica Mars” movie and the Pebble smartwatch, but has also faced controversies, including complaints that prominent musicians and filmmakers have exploited the crowdfunding model while not being fully transparent with their backers.

For other companies, some of the stipulations Kickstarter put into its charter as a public benefit corporation would be anathema. Kickstarter is exceptionally charitable, for instance, donating 5 percent of after-tax profits to causes that support the arts and combat inequality. Kickstarter has also agreed to “not use loopholes or other esoteric but legal tax management strategies to reduce its tax burden.”

Kickstarter decided to become a public benefit corporation because “there’s a huge difference between a values document and the legal foundation of your company,” said Mr. Chen, who serves as chairman but focuses on making art.