Like any donor, corporate philanthropy departments today want to know that their investments in their community have an impact. It’s not about altruism (although giving back does feel good); instead, it’s about driving long-term, lasting change.

This was the topic at hand during today’s breakout session, “A Seat at the UnCommon Table: Leveraging your Philanthropic Investments in Education” as part of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference.

Cheryl Kiser, managing director of The Lewis Initiative, Babson College and moderator of the panel opened our talk with the recent discovery of a worrying trend:

For over 25 years, corporate philanthropy professionals had indicated that their #1 funding and volunteer priority was education. In the last two years, however, Cheryl noticed in surveys of the field that corporate philanthropy departments were suffering from what she called the “3 F’s”:

They were Frustrated, they felt Fatigued, and they worried that they had Failed in their attempts to truly invest in educational systems and drive progress.

The purpose of the session, then, was to leverage what Cheryl called “The Uncommon Table” – in essence a platform in which participants could go beyond the static idea-sharing common within homogenous sectors or industries and instead participate in “uncommon conversations with unusual suspects.” After all, she reasoned, “no one company can go it alone.”

To do this, Cheryl was joined by a group of terrific and highly knowledgeable panelists:

• Linda A. Pittenger, consultant, Council of Chief State School Officers
• Lydia M. Logan, executive director, Institute for a Competitive Workforce
• Suzanne Immerman, special assistant to the secretary/director of Philanthropic Engagement, U.S. Department of Education

Together, Cheryl and the panelists opened themselves up to questions from the audience in what was an informal and informative discussion on the state of the U.S. Education System and how corporate funders can get involved. A few takeaways are worth sharing:

One attendee asked a question that seemed to resonate throughout the room: “If we’re supposed to help fix American education, shouldn’t we know (and agree on) what’s broken?”

While all panelists had opinions on just what’s wrong, Suzanne from the Department of Education boiled it down to four problem areas:

1. Human Capital (both supporting educators and administrators, as well as making school relevant to students);
2. Information and data systems (to track, measure, and strategize);
3. Different state standards and assessment tools to tracking student performance
4. Low performing schools that consistently underperform without being reformed.

Interestingly, one panelist suggested that in order to tackle these problems, business should look at its core competencies and the areas in which it has the most credibility. Many of the areas in which business excels – management training, information systems, data analysis, etc – are the areas that schools need the most help with. Given this, Lydia encouraged the audience to consider how their corporate investments in education were aligned with these four areas – if they’re not aligned, she suggested, companies would do well to refocus.

Other relevant conversation points included how companies can drive innovation through partnerships and grant proposals with the Department of Education (who, by the way, is putting an incredible amount of stimulus funding innovation and reform in education), as well as what other countries are doing to support their educational systems as they grow, develop, and eventually surpass the U.S. in the rankings.

In all, the session provided a thoughtful look at the multiple, challenging issues that corporate funders and schools face as they partner to effect change in our educational system. Hopefully this will be the start of more informal “Uncommon Tables” throughout the U.S. as attendees go back to their home offices and share what they learned.

Ashley’s Note: This is the second of three posts I wrote as a featured blogger for The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s 2010 Annual Conference. Click these links to learn more about the conference, check out the session description, and to read all the blog posts from the event.

Betty Londergan is a woman on a mission.

Since the start of 2010, Betty has embarked on a journey of what I can only describe as “Inspired Philanthropy”.

But before I dive into Betty’s story – let me ask you this:

How many times a day do you stop and think about the people around you and their personal stories?

The woman sitting next to you on the bus, the man in the cubicle down the hall, or the little kids playing on the basketball court – How many times do you stop to think: “Who are they?” or “Where did they come from?” And, perhaps most importantly, “Do they need my help?”

As we get caught up in the day-to-day drudgery of life (errands, work, family, etc), it’s easy to stay focused on ourselves and what we need or want.

I’m just as “guilty” of this as anyone; between school, my job search, and being a wife, daughter and friend, my plate is pretty full these days. Not to mention the fact that my wallet is pretty tight too.

Given both these financial and time constraints, when it comes to my own personal charitable giving, I often fall back on old habits. I have my list of go-to organizations and, when I find myself in a giving mood, I just direct my donations to them.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t often consider which new or innovative ideas and organizations are deserving of my donations – in large part, I think, because I’m just too darned busy to search!

Enter Betty Londergan, whose 2010 resolution is “365 days of putting my money where my mouth is”.

Betty’s blog, What Gives 365, is a daily record of her journey in philanthropy. For 365 days Betty has pledged to give $100 a day to people and organizations doing great work.

How does Betty choose where to give? In her own words:

In super general terms, I’m going to give to places that I have a personal connection with [and] I’ll tell you the story behind my gift in the hopes that you might be moved to support the cause, too. I will try to choose organizations that will use the money effectively and wisely (I’m checking organizations out with Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy).

Beyond that, my yardstick is to give money to alleviate things that make me want to cry; things that make me feel ferociously protective; things that make me want to say Amen; and things that just make me feel good.

In essence, Betty has decided to pay attention to the everyday people and stories that move her.

I recently signed up for her RSS feed (and I encourage you to do the same) – which means that every day I get a short, sweet, and inevitably inspiring story of amazing people doing incredible work.

Work that I would have never known about had Betty not stopped to take some time, connect with others, and hear their stories.

In the end I think philanthropy is about connecting with the people, animals, environments and organizations around us – and supporting what moves us.

Unlike Betty, we might not all be able to give $100 a day. But what if we gave $50 a day, or $10, or even $1? Our smaller gifts might not have the impact that Betty’s do, but we’d still be reconnecting with our community and supporting causes that are meaningful to us.

Now that’s what I’d call Inspired Philanthropy.

Is it an example of the powerful partnership that can be created between business and nonprofits?

Or is it simply about writing a check – and checking a box?

I mentioned in an earlier post on The Changebase that I recently attended the 2009 Net Impact Conference at Cornell University, and one of the panels I attended tackled this question.

The panel was called “The Evolution of Corporate Philanthropy: Achieving Greater Impact through Strategic Giving” – and moderator Mark Kramer, managing director at FSG Social Impact Advisors, immediately set the record straight regarding the changing role of corporate philanthropy over time.

His hypothesis is that in the last twenty years, the purpose of corporate philanthropy has evolved from mere existence (he actually used the word “irrelevance”) to creating shared value for a company, its nonprofit partners, and its community.

To prove this point, Mark enlisted the help of an impressive corporate philanthropy panel:

• Anne Bronson, director of US Corporate Citizenship at Accenture
• Jason McBriarty, senior manager of Worldwide Community Affairs at Levi Strauss (and a Boston University MBA!)
• Hasting Stewart, vice president at Shell Oil Company Foundation.

Here’s what I learned:

Question: Do you still run into the issue of people doubting whether philanthropy is an important part of business?

Jason from Levi’s started out by noting that his company is privately-owned with a history of philanthropic community support (a factor that I believe is crucially important when it comes to the successful adoption/implementation of sustainability and CSR programs). He noted that the company’s new CEO understands that even in bad times philanthropy is a core component of Levi Strauss’ business.

Anne from Accenture said that, in this tough economy, shareholders don’t always want to see large checks going out the door. To respond to this, she and her team have focused more on donations of employee time through skills-based volunteering – which, given the experience of the Accenture workforce – is certainly a valuable gift.

Question: How can philanthropy be used to drive business goals?

I thought this was an especially important question – as I learned this summer as a corporate philanthropy intern, “doing the right thing” will only get you so far.

In the end, it’s about proving that the corporate philanthropy program is aligned with the business objectives.

Hasting said that philanthropy often reinforces the work that his company does by enabling Shell to have a presence in local communities. For example, every city or town that hosts a Shell refinery also has a community advisory panel (managed by the Shell Foundation and made up of local leaders and city advocates) that meets quarterly to engage in dialogue and share feedback or concerns. Thus philanthropy serves as an entry point for Shell to connect with its local communities.

Jason acknowledged that Levi Strauss engages in philanthropy because it’s the right thing to do, but it also looks critically at how philanthropy can have an impact on the business. One area of focus for Levi’s is its network of over 600 suppliers. Through its Foundation, Levi Strauss is training suppliers and their employees on issues relating to human rights and labor conditions in factories. In this way, corporate philanthropy is another lever that Levi’s can pull to ensure that its business is successful and sustainable.

Question: What kinds of attitude changes have you seen taking place in regards to public/private partnerships?

Anne noted that in the past relationships between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors had been strained, and even antagonistic. But, she believed that partnerships among business, nonprofits and governments were growing in popularity – and that when you focus on opportunities to partner with, rather than fight against, other organizations you ultimately create even more value and impact.

Jason highlighted the recent launch of a new partnership with Goodwill as an example of the power that can come through partnerships.

After evaluating their supply chain, Levi’s found that the greatest use of energy in the lifecycle of their 501 jean is consumer washing of the product at home. This made the company realize that it needed to do a better job of educating its consumers regarding how to care for their jeans as well as what to do with them once they were no longer wanted. And thus the Goodwill partnership – and a new Levi’s care tag on the inside of all 501 jeans – was borne.

Question: Given our economy, how has your company’s outlook on philanthropy changed?

In general, all of the panelists agreed that they’ve seen cuts to their budgets and staff. But, they also all agreed that they’re not seeing an abandonment of philanthropy just because times are tough.

As one panelist put it, “philanthropy is about being in it for the long haul” – and companies can’t just leave their communities because the economy is struggling.

All panelists did agree that, beyond measurement, monetizing the impact of philanthropy is a huge challenge. Levi’s, for instance, looks at measuring impact through the “buzz” that their cause marketing campaigns create, while Accenture uses storytelling to demonstrate the impact of their community investments.

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the session came when one panelist asked why corporate philanthropy was being forced to prove financial returns to the business when other functions (like marketing) have always had dubious connections to ROI?

In the end, he said, we need to stop being “the barking dog” – that is, forcing a conversation about why philanthropy matters – and instead showcase the assets that philanthropy has to offer to the business.

I couldn’t agree more!

It’s amazing to say it, but last week I finished up my corporate philanthropy internship at ABC. The summer just flew by! In all, it was a really terrific experience that challenged me to think creatively and strategically about how to educate employees about our corporate giving program and how they can get involved. More than that, it was an opportunity to brainstorm and devise an action plan for how the organization can use philanthropy as a strategic advantage in business.

I’ve given a pretty good overview of my internship in other posts on The Changebase (Learning How to Communicate Change, for example, or one of my Recap posts), so I won’t spend too much time talking about my projects. In general, I split my time between two main areas:

• Communications: this summer was all about the “Socialization of Corporate Giving” at ABC – which basically meant coming up with ways to educate our employees and leadership team about our program, how they could get involved, and perhaps most importantly, why it’s good for our business. Within communications I focused on creating educational campaigns to let employees know about their option to donate product to charity; redesigning and expanding our program’s presence on the company intranet; building out a more robust employee volunteer choice system (letting employees nominate nonprofits to work with beyond our network of partner organizations); and generally raising awareness and involving employees in the conversation. Here I am (below) at a Corporate Giving “expo” I set up to talk to employees, showcase our newly redesigned intranet pages, and encourage participation in the program.

• Branding: I ended my summer by building the case for branding. As a short summary, right now the corporate giving program at ABC is called “Corporate Giving”. Without a name or a visual identity, the program doesn’t stand out and get noticed by internal employees. Not to mention the fact that currently ABC does not really communicate at all with external stakeholders about how it gives back. All in all, calling it Corporate Giving is impersonal and doesn’t convey any of the heart or meaning behind why ABC is involved in the community. My report included competitive benchmarking (looking at how Land o’Lakes, Del Monte Foods, and V8 Juice externally market their community programs), making the case for why philanthropy in business is a strategic imperative, and outlining how and why branding our program is good for ABC.

Beyond my own summer projects, I also learned a lot about ABC’s business overall. I had the chance to meet with members of the senior leadership team, including the CEO, the COO and a Director of Manufacturing, as well as with various department heads from Quality, Customer Marketing, Consumer and Business Insights, and others. As a nonprofit “veteran”, it was eye-opening to spend 10 weeks at a company with 2000+ employees and learn how all of the various functional groups work together to make ABC so successful.

I was also lucky to meet and work with a friendly, smart group of MBA and undergraduate interns. Here I am with a few  intern friends at a tour of one of ABC’s plants:

As my time at ABC wound down, I started to reflect on what I’d done and learned over the summer. A few highlights:

1. Working in a for-profit setting is not all that different from a nonprofit: Sure, there is that one vital difference (ie: making money) – but besides that, I found that I acclimated pretty quickly. Interestingly, the part I found most “normal” (ie: similar to my nonprofit experiences) was the everyday, regular stuff: managing interpersonal dynamics with colleagues, finding enough time in the day to get everything done, and identifying ways to promote ideas and gain allies in the office. Ok, so ABC is for-profit. But beyond that, I felt right at home.
2. How you talk to your employees is just as important as how you talk to your consumers (if not more!): Ultimately everything ABC does (from R&D to Marketing to Operations and beyond) is focused on driving sales, which means that the company (and every company for that matter) can get caught up in focusing on how it talks to its consumers. This is an imperative for business – but it doesn’t take precedence over the conversation a company has with its own employees. To have happy consumers and customers, we must have happy employees. Sometimes when we get so focused on the bottom line, we forget how important it is to engage internal audiences in a conversation about our company values, heritage, mission, and goals. But as I learned in corporate giving, employees are our greatest asset and ambassadors; without them, the business just can’t succeed.
3. Change is sloooooooow: Change is such a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the idea of it gets our blood pumping and makes us feel energized and empowered; on the other, it can be overwhelming, unwanted, or feel like an unnecessary intrusion. Like any new employee, I came in to ABC this summer full of ideas, energy, and action, and I’m pleased to say I accomplished a lot. But any trouble I ran into this summer revolved around the idea that change – even good change – is slow moving. It takes time to get buy-in from the right people and package a message or idea in a way that your audience will understand – and even when you’ve done all of that, it’s still a challenge to actually move the dial in the direction you want. I did a lot this summer, but I could have used way more than 10 weeks to really make an impact.

With just two weeks left until I begin my second year of my MBA, it’s fun to look back on the summer and see what I accomplished. My experience at ABC really helped “round out” my understanding of how philanthropy (and CSR in general) can reinforce business goals and be a strategic advantage for companies that do it right. Now it’s time to get back to school!

I was lucky to come across this TED talk by Katherine Fulton, President of Monitor in Cambridge, MA and I just felt the need to share it.

“You Are the Future of Philanthropy” is a compelling, articulate discussion of 5 emerging trends that Ms. Fulton has witnessed in philanthropy today:

• Mass Collaboration
• Online Philanthropy Marketplaces
• Aggregated Giving
• Innovation Competitions
• Social Investing

She talks about how philanthropy and foundations need to be “Open, Big, Fast, Connected and Long” and that innovation and entrepreneurship in philanthropy are creating a new, unified community of philanthropists.

Ms. Fulton ends her 12-minute presentation on a poignant note – talking about legacy and the kind of role models we, as everyday citizens and empowered philanthropists, want to be for future generations.

A must watch!

With only 3 weeks left in my internship at ABC, I’m starting to change direction a bit. The first 6-7 weeks really centered around time-sensitive deliverables like rolling out the employee product donation campaign and launching an internal corporate giving awareness program. As these efforts begin to wind down, I’ve been able to spend more time on one of my most exciting summer projects: building the case for branding corporate giving at ABC.

As soon as I found out about this project I was excited to tackle it. I’m really interested in marketing and how brands convey certain messages, so thankfully this week I was able to get started. As I dove deeper into my research and read more about the power of brands in articulating a company’s social agenda (and I must say, many thanks to Cone for providing some really terrific data), I started doing a lot of thinking not just about branding but about corporate giving and corporate social responsibility in general. My charge was (and still is) to build the case for branding. But somewhere along the way this week it turned into building the case for doing good.

Sometimes at ABC we walk a delicate line in terms of the purpose of our corporate giving program: are we giving back because it makes us feel good? Because it’s the right thing to do? Because our employees are asking for it? Or because it ultimately impacts our bottom line? Often it feels like the programs we’re promoting (employee donations of product and time, especially) are meant as engagement tools or as a way to do something out of the goodness of our hearts, and not because there is a strategic business reason. Although I like to believe that people want to give back and that “doing the right thing” is everyone’s responsibility, even I understand that any corporate philanthropy program must have some sort of impact on business outcomes in order to recieve the support and funding it needs to succeed long-term.

This week I was lucky to have a conversation with David Almy, partner at ADC Partners, a sustainability and cause marketing firm in San Francisco, CA. I had gotten in touch with Dave to pick his brain about the role of brands in corporate giving programs, and he was nice enough to share some terrific ideas with me (and raise some really thought-provoking questions). One of the things that stuck out most in my mind from our conversation was the idea that both ”philanthropy” and ”brand” are very nebulous terms that are difficult to measure and quantify.

But therein lies the rub, Dave said. In business, everything is about measurement and impact -  and any company (and especially any CFO) that’s going to buy into a corporate giving program will need to understand how it all connects to the bottom line. Unfortunately, these days it’s just not so easy to wrap your arms around the impact of your corporate giving program (Funny enough, in a perfect example of the stars aligning this week, I also happened to meet Farron Levy, President of True Impact - a Boston-based firm that’s developed tools to help companies measure the ROI of their corporate citizenship programs! From what I hear about True Impact, Farron is really one of the leaders in this kind of measurement and surely one to watch).

For Dave’s part, he suggested I look at the customer lifecycle and consider how these kind of programs can go beyond employee engagement and move into customer satisfaction and purchase loyalty (afterall, happy employees beget happy customers, right?). This idea alone has given me food for thought and I’ve spent the time since my conversation with Dave considering how I can weave this into my branding project.

One other important point to mention from my talk with Dave: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about companies with CSR or philanthropy programs and looking at which ones had these kinds of social agendas written into their DNA “at birth” (Seventh Generation, for instance) versus those companies that have built their programs up over time (there are lots of them). I asked Dave about this and whether he thought integrating this kind of social responsibility into everyday business from the get-go had anything to do with the success of that company’s program. Dave didn’t seem to be so sure, and to answer my question he gave me two examples.

The first is Salesforce.com, whose founder Marc Benioff very clearly had a vision for how he wanted to give back to the community through donations of money, product and time. If you don’t yet know about the 1% program and the Salesforce.com Foundation, this is one to read up on and a great example of this kind of thinking being embedded in an organization from the beginning.

On the other hand, Dave pointed to Clorox as an example of a newly “converted” company; that is, one that’s seeing firsthand that involvement in CSR and sustainability can really have an impact on the bottom line (even if this kind of agenda wasn’t built into the fabric of the company from the start). Although it has received some criticism fom staunch environmentalists, Clorox’s Green Works line of household cleaners has done incredibly well, especially with young moms who want to do good things for their families but don’t necessarily want to pay extra. Throw in Clorox’s recent acquisition of Burt’s Bees and their new Brita Filter for Good campaign and all of a sudden you’ve got a company who’s quickly learned that doing good can be good for business.

This is a relevant debate for me a for a couple of reasons:

1) because I want to figure out how to help ABC “become” a Clorox

2) because eventually I want to create my own for-profit social venture (thus mixing business and giving back).

Although I’m not yet ready to go out on my own and start my own business, in an interesting twist I’m pleased to say that my mom Janice is. For 30 years my mom owned The Bead Shop, a Bay Area bead store with a global reach and a local community impact strategy. Through donations of gift certificates, products, and cash, my mom’s business supported organizations in the Bay Area for decades. Unfortunately The Bead Shop closed its doors in August of 2008, and since then my mom has been crafting a new business strategy. And like Seventh Generation, my mom wants her business to have a social agenda from Day One. In fact, she’s being very honest about her commitment to this kind of giving back, and I couldn’t be more proud. I hope you’ll take a moment to read about her ideas and support her work as she creates a new business at www.beadshop.com. Way to go, mom!

Overall it was a very thought-provoking and energizing week, with lots of questions and ideas racing around in my head. And I know I’ve thrown a lot at you in this post. But I hope it’s made you think about what kind of social contract a business might have with its community. When you see companies with philanthropy or CSR programs, do you trust them more? What makes them seem genuine to you as opposed to just a marketing ploy? And does the presence of those programs make you want to spend your money with them over their competitors? I’m very curious to hear your thoughts!

One of the best benefits of being both an MBA student and summer intern is the chance to think deeply and honestly about what I want to be when I “grow up”. Between career seminars, lunch and learns, informational interviews, and being back in an office again, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to really explore what I want my professional life to look like.

Before business school I worked as a fundraiser for a couple of organizations – each with different missions, cultures, and values. What’s funny about fundraising is that at the end of the day, you really are selling something. Not a product, obviously, but a mission and a cause. When I was at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, “selling” this cause was really easy. Not only did I personally believe in and connect with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, but so did practically every prospective donor that walked through the doors.

Why was this the case?

It all comes down to the power of a personal, face-to-face introduction with a mission that matters.

While touring a children’s hospital may not sound like a fun way to spend the day, in fact every time I started cultivating a relationship with a donor, I would try to get a hospital visit on the calendar. Sure, those visits were emotional – sometimes sad, sometimes thrilling, sometimes joyful – but everytime, no matter what, that emotion was valuable. Not only would it encourage empathy and thoughtfulness on the part of the donor, but it served as a true connector for them with our organization’s mission. They saw our work with their own eyes, and they were converted.

From the children’s hospital I moved on to The BizWorld Foundation, a terrific education organization teaching entrepreneurship and business skills to children and young teens. Again, a cause I really connected with, especially as I learned more about how little education children actually get around financial literacy and business. In this case, though, connecting my donors with this mission turned out to be a huge challenge due to a number of obstacles (including, but not limited to, the fact that our programs were taught in classrooms all over the country at different times of the year, essentially making scheduled classroom visits practically impossible). Because of this, I often struggled to identify how to turn my donors into true believers; no matter how worthy the cause, they simply couldn’t witness it with their own eyes. 

My experiences with these two organizations proved to me that mission really matters, not only for my own personal satisfaction but as a way to connect people around me with what I’m doing.

Not surprising, then, is the fact that at ABC it has been difficult for me to find the mission in what I’m doing. Afterall, it’s a consumer products company, not a children’s hospital. And even though I’m working in corporate giving, at the end of the day the company’s purpose is still to sell its products and make a profit (I suppose you could say that is ABC’s “mission”, but that’s not the kind of mission I’m talking about).  

What’s interesting, though, is that this week I got a little taste of what I believe ABC’s true mission to be. I was fortunate to get to go on the road for a day and meet some of ABC’s growers (without giving too much away, all of ABC’s products are made from raw agricultural materials). At first I was just excited to learn more about how ABC produces its goods, but after setting foot on one of the grower-owned farms, I instantly knew my primary purpose for visiting: connecting with ABC’s mission.

Standing there, surrounded by lush green hills and in such a lovely natural setting, I immediately felt in tune with the company and its heritage. I laughed to myself as I thought back on my fundraising days and said to myself, “This would make a great donor tour”. While not donors, it was obvious to me that ABC’s customers and consumers should all be given the chance to see this work in person. It really was an incredible sight.

It just goes to show that regardless of whether you’re selling tennis shoes or promoting a local soup kitchen, finding ways to connect emotionally and personally with your customers, donors, and community is crucial to success.

So what does all this mean for me? As I continue my career exploration, I’ve been thinking more and more about becoming a true social entrepreneur and starting something on my own. I love the idea of being innovative and creative and developing something that really can make a difference – in short, something that matters.

What’s holding me back? The truth is, I don’t yet know what my own true mission will be.

Every professional experience I’ve had has proven to me that I have to be connected to a cause that resonates, and no where is that lesson more applicable than in starting your own venture. What will my organization do? Who will I help? How will I do it? And why will it matter?

Currently these questions all remain unanswered for me, but my hope is that everything will become clearer with time. After another year of school and learning experiences under my belt, I may feel much more assured and comfortable with all of this. For now, though, all I do know is that the mission has to be priority #1.

I just finished up my third week at work and in many ways I feel like I’m just hitting my stride.

One of the big things I worked on this week was solidifying what my summer projects will be. When I started at ABC it seemed like I had an endless amount of time to collect a bunch of different projects, but in reality I’m only going to be there for 10 or 11 weeks. So one of the first things I worked on this week was really narrowing my focus and making sure that the projects I’ve taken on can actually be accomplished.

I spent a lot of time this week focusing on two areas specifically:

1) Preparing the communication materials to roll-out the company’s corporate giving platform to the leadership of ABC’s satellite locations. This meant that for much of the week, I put my MBA powerpoint skills to the test by creating process flow diagrams and using lots of smart art (my classmates would be so proud).

There are a couple of important points that this communication plan needs to convey. First, we need to educate the leadership at these locations about the types of organizations that, as a unified network, ABC will give money and product to–and more importantly, why. The corporate giving committee at the company has worked hard to establish a focus and purpose for its giving, and now it’s time to make sure that everyone not only understands the reasons behind these choices but also follows them. Second, we’re trying to explain the various ways that these locations can actually support causes in their communities, especially through product donations. Product can be donated locally by that specific ABC location or by an individual employee working at that location, and the guidelines around the types of organizations that can receive product from the company versus an employee are slightly different. So, outlining that process and making sure the location leadership understands how this works is crucial. Interestingly, since this information is coming from corporate, we’re also trying to be sensitive to the fact that these locations were presumably managing all of this before these formal guidelines were established. The tone of the communication pieces, therefore, has to be focused on raising awareness and educating location leadership on our new giving platform, without sounding like we’re trying to do their jobs for them.

2) The other project I focused on this week is our employee volunteer program expansion. Right now ABC partners with two local organizations, The Greater Boston Food Bank and The Plymouth Area Coalition for the Homeless, to provide regularly scheduled employee volunteering options. While these are certainly worthy service opportunities, one of my projects is to grow our volunteer program to enable individual employees and department teams to nominate their own volunteering ideas. Although this does include building the system (presumably on the company intranet) that would allow employees to easily suggest their volunteering ideas, a big issue here is that not all employees actually know that they are eligible to participate in the program. So my work here goes beyond setting up the intranet “architecture” and once again moves into communication and education (a theme that actually runs through all of my summer projects at ABC).

One volunteer opportunity that I’m especially excited about is a potential collaboration with another local company to send employees from both companies to work with Outdoor Explorations, an organization that “makes the outdoors a welcoming place for people with disabilities.” It’s a very worthwhile cause and I think ABC employees would really enjoy a day of working with these folks. I’ll keep you updated as the volunteer day takes shape.

In addition to working on these two main projects, this week I also attended a local United Way annual meeting and awards luncheon. For the second year in a row, ABC was honored by this United Way chapter for its financial support (including its annual employee giving campaign), volunteerism, and community committment. It was really exciting to attend this event and to see ABC recognized for its dedication to the communities in which it works.

Finally, ABC runs a fairly well-developed intern program during the summer boasting a number of speakers from different functional areas in the company. Since all of the summer interns are now on board, this programming has begun. I had two events this week: the first was a sensory training (learning all about how people use their senses (taste, smell, etc) when consuming our products), and the second was a tour of a local plant to see one of our products being made. The sensory training was interesting, but the tour was outstanding. My fellow interns and I donned our protective hair nets, hard hats, safety goggles, and white smocks (picture coming soon!) and got an insider’s look at how ABC makes one of its best selling items. I don’t know if anyone watches that show, How It’s Made, but I swear it was just like our own personal episode!

All in all it was a really fun week and I’m excited about the progress I’ve made.

Hello dear readers of The Changebase, how’ve you been? I’m sorry that I’ve been out of touch lately–between starting my new corporate giving gig and also moving into a new apartment, it’s been very busy and there’s been little time for updates. But I’m back and ready to fill all of you in on my new adventures as an intern.

As a reminder, in a slight attempt to keep my accounts of my summer somewhat confidential, I’m going to say that I work for “ABC”, a privately-owned, consumer products company in Massachusetts (although I realize that by doing a little digging, you can probably figure out where I’m working). Why do I feel the need to keep things a bit hush-hush? My goal is to try to convey my experiences this summer as honestly as possible, and something about keeping the company name a little private just feels a bit more “kosher”. So, thanks for humoring me on this one.

Anyway, I’m excited to report that I’ve now been working as a corporate giving intern for two weeks, and so far I’m really enjoying it. First, a little background. ABC has been doing charitable giving for quite some time now (in fact, I’d say the philosophy of the company is based on giving back, sustainable agriculture, and ethical behavior in business). It’s only been in the last year or so, however, that they’ve tried formalizing their corporate philanthropy efforts and creating a true program around it. The company is roughly 75 years old and employs 2,000 people across the U.S. and Canada; I work in the corporate office with about 500 people. The fact that ABC has this main corporate office and a number of satellite locations is central to the formal roll-out of the company’s corporate giving agenda (but more on that in a bit). I sit in the Human Resources group and report to the Manager of Corporate Communications. Overall I have to say that all of my new colleagues have been very friendly and welcoming, and there is even a really nice group of interns that I’m getting to know (including, I’m pleased to report, a Sustainability Intern!).

Corporate giving at ABC is focused on promoting nutritional health and family wellness and really falls into three main buckets: gifts of cash (ie: small grants, event sponsorships, etc), gifts of product, and employee volunteer hours. On the surface, this doesn’t sound too complicated. What makes it complex, though, is the fact that beyond the corporate office, there are roughly 10 locations across North America that, for as long as anyone can remember, have kind of been left to do their own thing when it comes to philanthropy. The goal now is to get these locations on the same program and following the same guidelines and policies as the corporate office–which is where I come in.

My objective this summer is to help solidify and grow the corporate giving program at ABC. This includes ensuring that all of the satellite locations implement, follow, and track their giving according to the stated policies and giving criteria that the corporate office has developed. In addition, I’ve also been tasked with the job of adding more “infrastructure” to the overall program, including instituting an online giving system for employees through the company intranet. But perhaps my biggest priority for the summer is what my boss has coined the “Socialization of Corporate Giving”. It took me a little while to figure out exactly what she meant but basically it boils down to this: once the nuts and bolts of the program are in place (that is, the policies are finalized and the architecture of the program is set), it’s my job to figure out how to communicate the basics and the benefits of the program to our employees, and later, to our customers. First and foremost this means building the case for branding the corporate giving program (an especially exciting project that I’m really looking forward to tackling). Other components of the socialization plan include:

• Educating employees about their new option to take a paid day-off to volunteer, and making sure that there are enough interesting and worthy volunteer opportunities to choose from
• Promoting ABC’s involvement in the Go Red for Women cause marketing campaign with the American Heart Association, as well as its partnerships with various regional nonprofit partners
• Developing copy and content for the ABC website to make sure that we properly promote the program to consumers and other external audiences
• Making sure that every employee, no matter their position in the company, understands the program and can serve as an ambassador for ABC and the good work it’s doing in the community.

This is a lot to tackle in one summer, and so far it’s been really thought-provoking and intellectually challenging–which is great! I am sure that somewhere along the way, though, I will run into some bumps in the road. Change is always difficult to deal with, and anytime you’re trying to get buy-in from a variety of people with different motives and goals, you’re going to create some friction–especially when things have been done a certain way for years and now we want to change it. I think this will especially come into play with getting all of the satellite locations on board with the new, formalized giving policies. What I’m most curious to see and experience, though, is how the corporate giving program grows during this tough economy. As I think a lot of people in corporate philanthropy/CSR/sustainability can attest to, it’s one thing to say this is an important company priority, but it’s another to actually put money into building the program. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.

As I continue posting, I’ll get more in-depth with explanations and examples of what corporate giving looks like at ABC and the various components that go into it, but for now this is a good overview. So far it’s been a really fun couple of weeks and I’ve really enjoyed sinking my teeth into some very meaty projects.

For as long as I can remember, I have always felt a connection with the nonprofit sector. Maybe it’s because I grew up doing community service and working with local charities, or maybe it’s just that my heart and my spirit have always needed to engage in projects that had a positive impact on others. Whatever the reason, I have always gravitated toward work with a social mission. So it was a no brainer that when I graduated from college, I joined the ranks of nonprofit employees across the country and got to work. 

The first time I dipped my toes into the corporate water was when I applied to business school. After five years of fundraising for Bay Area nonprofits, I felt deeply rooted in the nonprofit community. I understood how to exist and thrive in that realm, how to partner with donors and other organizations to truly effect change. In short, they were my people, and I was theirs.

Yet, no matter how attached or connected I felt in the safe nonprofit space I had created, I knew there was something missing. Some people say that nonprofits don’t focus on the cold, hard impact numbers. Others say nonprofits suffer from a crisis of management and leadership experience. And others actually say both are true. For me, no matter how aligned my personal beliefs were with the nonprofit sector and the good work it does, I felt as though I could do more and do better by understanding how “the other half” lived. Which is how I found my way to the Boston University Graduate School of Management.

The BU GSM (as we call it) has been a great place to land for a nonprofiteer in the midst of a bit of an identity crisis (check out BU’s Public and Nonprofit Management Program for more info). I came to BU armed with my fundraising experience and a keen understanding of how the nonprofit sector operated. Yet I also arrived with a true curiosity about how business—with its access to financial, technological, and staff resources that often far exceed those in the nonprofit world—might tackle some of the global, social issues that I care about. Thus I began my first year of business school.

The past 9 months have been a time of intense questioning and driven exploration for me. I have started getting better at seeing problems through the lens of business, and my solutions these days often involve a deeper consideration of revenue streams, operating costs, and shareholder concerns. Yet what’s interesting is that when you think about it, these three issues, while packaged in business language, are actually also necessary priorities in any nonprofit organization. More organizations these days are looking for ways to become self-sustaining through revenue, especially in this economic climate. Maintaining low operating costs is also a huge issue in the sector when so many funders only want to support programmatic expenses. And shareholders in the nonprofit world are simply donors who believe in your mission enough to invest in the work that you do. If there’s any development director out there who’s not concerned about keeping her donors happy, I’d like to know what her secret is.

In short, while there may be some very fundamental differences between businesses and nonprofit organizations (which I’m sure will become its own post at some point!), I do believe there are a lot of similarities. And, with a year of business school under my belt, I’m pleased to say that I will soon have the opportunity to become a bit of an expert on this topic.

Starting next week, I’ll be interning at an international consumer products company in Massachusetts (for confidentiality’s sake, I’ll be calling this company ABC throughout my blog). As one of their first-ever corporate philanthropy interns, I will be responsible for solidifying and growing ABC’s corporate giving efforts, which include cash and product donations, as well as employee volunteer hours. It’s a very big job that I’m very excited to start—and I’ll be bringing The Changebase readers along with me throughout the summer.

When I look back at where my journey started in fundraising, and the path I have taken through my first year at BU, I laugh a little bit when I think about my summer plans. Before business school I would have never expected to work anywhere but a nonprofit, and yet I am thrilled to have the chance to understand philanthropy through the eyes of a for-profit corporation. While I’m sure that there will be an inherent, steep learning curve, my hunch is that perhaps it won’t look that different from what I’ve known so far in my career. After all, ABC wants happy, healthy and satisfied customers, which is what every nonprofit wants for its community. At the end of the day, we both want the same thing—we just get there differently. Here’s to seeing how the other half lives!

-Ashley