How to Prospect and Assess Philanthropy Opportunities for your Business
FORM a team to create an environment in global organizations that facilitate positive social change.
LEARN how to develop strategies and best practices for early-stage and growing companies interested in developing integrated philanthropy programs into their culture and business.
FIND OUT high level stories of how companies are using their product, services, and people to support the social sector.
Marc’s books
Behind the Cloud – chapter on Corporate Philanthropy - https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=XX5QJ7hfDW8C&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP3.w.0.0.0.2
The Business of Changing the World - http://www.amazon.com/Business-Changing-World-Strategic-Philanthropy-ebook/dp/B0098VQREU/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
According to wikipedia - the origin of the word philanthropy means.....This is how i’m going to be referring to philanthropy in our time together.
Also to call out the word benefactor - doesn’t just mean to give out money but also non-finaincial help to people and causes in need.
in the sense of caring, nourishing, developing and enhancing
"what it is to be human"
on both the benefactors' and beneficiaries' parts
I also want to talk about the word integration – dictionary.com defines it as “to meld with and become part of the dominant culture”. This is an important concept as the two dominant cultures I’ll be referring to is “curriculum in the school classroom” and “business”.
Im going to start with my story – my process – my very serendipitous process –and how I got to where I am now and how integrating stuff (technology and philanthropy) has been a part of my journey. Along the way, I will provide anecdotes and examples of what integrated philanthropy looks like and things to think about if/when/how you want to develop or join these programs.
Also will share some things that didn’t work. Hindsight is 20/20
Story starts in 1996 when I somehow talked my way into a job as a technology specialist in a middle school. With little knowledge of how to maintain a network, I figured it all out. I had been working as a teacher in elementary school in inner city Atlanta. Not sure if I did more teaching than disciplining, but the kids and I made it through the two years. What helped me get through those years, was seeing how technology was such a wonderful motivator and more importantly a tool to get these 3rd graders excited about learning THEIR way.
Tech Specialist – Middle School. ccMail, Apple Iie – lots of computers. Lottery funds for the computers and a tech specialist.
I was lucky – this school system, Fulton County in Atlanta Georgia – saw the lottery money go into purchasing new computers for the schools. They also had the forethought to hire tech specialists to manage the computers in the school – rather than just one teacher who knew a little bit more than everyone about computer to manage them – on top of their everyday classes.
Richard DuFour is an American educational researcher noted for developing strategies to create collaborative teaching environments in K-12 schools.
The most fun was working with the teachers how to integrate the technology into their curriculum. No longer was that Apple IIe (then upgraded to a PowerMac 5400) just used for game time. I got to work with teachers and show them hyperstudio how to surf the web, how to do desktop publishing and powerpoints – even a little HTML. (I knew enough to be dangerous). Just as the reason I went into teaching to be a catalyst to help the lightbulb go on for students in their quest to learn and succeed and be happy in that success (getting the answer right or acquiring a new skill) It was just as rewarding for teachers to take this knowledge back to their students. It was also a task to get them to let go a little and be the guide on the side, rather than the sage on the stage and let their students be the experts. They can learn from their students.
Israel Trip - story
I had stayed in touch with Marc and he connected me with the Oracle Promises team, even helping out one weekend with an Oracle volunteer activity installing computers in some of the Atlanta schools. Little did I know this was foreshadowing for a company not yet formed and a role not yet created for me.
I ran into Marc later the next year and he told me he had left Oracle to start a new company – and with this new company he was ready to start a Foundation. And this foundation was going to work with kids and technology and bridge the digital divide. Again, not really knowing much about silicon valley and the players, I blurted “If you’re going to be dealing with kids and technology, don’t just be a company that gives away money, you need to hire teachers”. And that was my interview that I had no idea I was having.
Little did I know this was my interview.
So, in July of 2000 I packed up my Atlanta apartment car and cat and moved to San Francisco on the dot.com wave.
With only 115 employees in the company and three of us in the Foundation we went to work to “bridge this digital divide”. Since Marc had grown up in the Bay Area and was already keenly aware of the educational divide technology was causing he felt it was the right issue to address – and as a soon to be exceptionally large technology company in the Bay Area we were poised to do it.
Marc envisioned salesforce as a three legged school - a new kind of technology a new kind of business and a new kind of philanthropy.
New technology model – software delivered over the internet – cloud (very new in 2000)
New Business model – subscription based
New Philanthropy model - not wait until we got to some comfortable success – core part of the business. The philanthropy model as many of you may know it as 1/1/1 model –
1 % Time – 6 paid days to volunteer
1 % Product – donate/discount the product
1% Equity – donated 1% of the pre-IPO stock
Marc jokes that it was so easy to set up the foundation - because there was no employees, no product and no equity just yet.
Beacon Centers - built curriculum
Youth Media
All over the world
Given this was such a new concept – there was no formal roadmap or off-the-shelf strategic plan. Couldn’t search the internet for a nice package or even post on FB for to see if there were any suggestions! We had to throw lots of spaghetti
Marc and Colin Powell story – DC schools
Youth Media Festival
Fun learning curves. We were ahead of our time and out of our league.
Pre-FB and Pre-YouTube. We built our own (YouthSpace)
Had to raise $250k to put it on, but some of the most valuable support was from an events company who gave us a person full time for a month to manage the event. #invaluable
Engaged employees as volunteers, and home stays.
Youth hostel - cook meals. Tour guides.
Employees and their families got to know the kids. However, Why was a CRM company working on youth media?
A company like Adobe should focus on that - they did with their Adobe Youth Voices.
and we learned a ton.
We found employees who loved salesforce and who had friends, spouses, family members who worked at nonprofits were reaching out to use the platform.
The central premise behind creating shared value is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent. Recognizing and capitalizing on these connections between societal and economic progress has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth and to redefine capitalism.
Companies can create shared value opportunities in three ways:
1. Reconceiving products and markets – Companies can meet social needs while better serving existing markets, accessing new ones, or lowering costs through innovation
2. Redefining productivity in the value chain – Companies can improve the quality, quantity, cost, and reliability of inputs and distribution while they simultaneously act as a steward for essential natural resources and drive economic and social development (LEVIS and GOODWILL) Care tag for our planet – donate clothes when no longer needed – Diverts from landfill and provides training to those who work at the goodwill shops to sell the donated products which provides income to the organzation and creates jobs
3. Enabling local cluster development – Companies do not operate in isolation from their surroundings. To compete and thrive, for example, they need reliable local suppliers, a functioning infrastructure of roads and telecommunications, access to talent, and an effective and predictable legal system – yearup story – placing youth, training them on product
Many approaches to CSR pit businesses against society, emphasizing the costs and limitations of compliance with externally imposed social and environmental standards. CSV acknowledges tradeoffs between short-term profitability and social or environmental goals, but focuses more on the opportunities for competitive advantage from building a social value proposition into corporate strategy.
Article published in Harvard Business School Review in 2011 by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, also founders of FSG.
illustrate the concept of shared value in the collaboration with NJ Food Bank, Campbells and NJ farmers.
Farmers in NJ found they had nearly 850,000 pounds of otherwise unsellable peaches (due to blemishes or size). It was costly to even just dispose of them as well as seemingly a waste of food.
Campbell saw this as an opportunity to harness the unused surplus of peaches and involved their product development team - wherby they came up with a Peachy Salsa recipe. They donated jars, recipe, and additional ingredients as well as their warehouse production facilities and 200 employees to help can and label the jars. They had no branding on the jars.
All the profits generated from the sale of cases of Peachy Salsa were donated to the New Jersey Food bank. Walmart and ShopRight are stocking the salsa as well.
In the end the value created were:
reduce in waste landfill
save cost to farmers on disposal and waste removal
work with farmers who supply healthy food
revenue source for the food bank
created a tasty healthy product
engaged employees
provided knowledge and product expertise from the corporation
INTEGRATE
No longer director of guilt – or Mandateering – or Voluntold
People volunteer for a wide variety of reasons, especially wanting to help others. But it's also OK to want some benefits for yourself from volunteering
Some people are uncomfortable with the notion that a volunteer "benefits" from doing volunteer work. There is a long tradition of seeing volunteering as a form of charity, based on altruism and selflessness. The best volunteering does involve the desire to serve others, but this does not exclude other motivations, as well.
to feel needed
to share a skill
to get to know a community
to demonstrate commitment to a cause/belief
to gain leadership skills
to act out a fantasy
to do your civic duty
because of pressure from a friend or relative
satisfaction from accomplishment
to keep busy
for recognition
to repay a debt
to donate your professional skills
because there is no one else to do it
to have an impact
to learn something new
for freedom of schedule
to help a friend or relative
for escape
to become an "insider"
guilt
to be challenged
to be a watchdog
to feel proud
to make new friends
to explore a career
to help someone
as therapy
to do something different from your job
for fun!
for religious reasons
to earn academic credit
to keep skills alive
because an agency is geographically close
to have an excuse to do what you love
to be able to criticize
to assure progress
to feel good
to be part of a team
to gain status
because you were asked
to test yourself
to build your resume
to be an agent of change
because of personal experience with the problem, illness, or cause
to stand up and be counted
True Impact
Make probono volunteer as part of leadership development.
Imperative.com – find your purpose
www.taproot.com
Resources they wouldn’t normally have – computer expertise, marketing support, extnded network, product.
Less $ spent on hiring the people to staff.
1/3 of the 42MM pounds of food sorted at the food bank was done by volunteers (1200 weekly volunteers adds up to 3-4 million dollars)
Become champions of their cause
Educate volunteers about the issue they are addressing
prosocial bonuses, a novel type of bonus spent on others rather than on oneself
These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shifting the focus from the self to others – can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0075509 - led to greater happiness and even increase performance in sales
Fellowships – what cisco did – what salesforce does - GSK
- Facebook sends specially designed cards to their digital advertisers at year-end. The package includes a small gift like headphones ("a gift for you") and the card ("a gift for someone else").
- A PepsiCo executive asked that instead of his 25th anniversary party that each person who would have attended receive a GG gift card.
- Microsoft gave them out this year to every retail store to give out to customers on GivingTuesday.
- Liquidnet has children of employees draw a picture. The winning picture is put on a card and everyone gets a coffee table book of all of the children's drawings, as well.
Alcoa gives them out to prospective employees on campus visits.
VMware uses them upon onboarding -- new employees get a $25 card on their first day, and then a $50 card on the anniversary of their first year. Each employee received a $100 card from the CEO at the end of the year.
EMC uses them to reward employees for service -- each employee gets a $25 card on the month of their hiring anniversary every year.
HP uses them to thank employees for volunteering, once an employee has logged ten hours.
Several companies give larger amounts to teams so that a team-building activity is determining who the recipients will be.
Discovery Communications also gives each employee a $100 gift card at the end of the year.
It's basically an easy way to make a donation/grant (to GG, a 501c3 public charity) but then have the recipient be able to allocate the funds to vetted projects in 160+ countries.
Mention grant program
Built a social enterprise – they sell at the discount and that revenue goes back into the foundation in order for it to be sustainable.
A huge movement and market has grown as well – new partners in the space, it’s a business and a way to continue to fund the foundation w/out having to fundraise or make an ask of the company each year for a budget.
www.salesforcefoundation.org
Optimizely a young 300 person company (with a handful of former salesforce employees who wanted to bring the 1/1/1 model with them) does similar work with nonprofits. Optimizely makes it easy to change and test design variations on websites and mobile apps. . A/B testing. Through it’s discounted sales program, nonprofits can now optimize their donations.
Optimizely.org is empowering increased donations, signups, and nonprofit online effectiveness through discounted packages.
Optimizely tested the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund landing page in 2010, helping raise an additional million dollars for earthquake survivors in a week. This proved that not only could A/B testing do great work for noprofits,
www.optimizely.org
Get FEedback
www.box.org
Our mission is to help anyone learn anything. She and her team work to democratize education by partnering with international organizations to help local content experts abroad share their expertise with the world.
SAP offers pro bono volunteering programs, enterprise technology solutions, and financial support for social enterprises and local entrepreneurial ecosystems in mature and emerging markets.
The social enterprises are using innovative ideas in areas focused on health, education, finanical services - they are transforming the way business is done in the developing markets. SAP invests in these social entreprenuers to support and accelerate the growth and success
Employees help the social entrepreneurs overcome challenges like legal or regulartarity requirements, business experience or to tap into talent, -
Accelerator for startups in emerging markets – so often these SMBs don’t have the operational backbone or inadequate guidance to scale. With a product like SAP or Salesforce and experts at the company they can both build their market and more importantly help SMBs who are making a social impact scale successfully. It also extends the runway for future SMB customers for SAP
in Brazil 80% of new jobs are created by small businesses. 1 in 6 adults is creating a new business.
http://scn.sap.com/community/sustainability/blog/2014/02/17/social-innovation
Solardium –Over eight million artisans in Brazil live below the poverty line. Solidarium is an online marketplace that connects artisans directly with a network of recognized and highly qualified design studios and retailers globally, such as Walmart and JCPenny, building economic opportunity for artisans, and a scalable business for Solidarium.
Everybody loves a listcle
Following are 5 things to think about when developing your philanthropy program or reaching out to organizations with whom to work.
Why do you want to do this?
What change do you wanttomake
What’s your purpose? Is it because everyone else is doing it?
Do you see a challenge in your community or the world that your resources can solve?
Simon Sinek – start with the why?
The HOW comes second – the structure the operations – first figure out what want to solve for and then figure out the structure – the passion and purpose should be your driving force
- Maybe I’ts a foundation structure that you want and may be have it embedded as a part of the company. There are pros and cons of each – so the right answer will be different for each business
People product resources – Starfish story
A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.
She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”
The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.
Providing your technology for free – start with a few test organizations. How to manage it, hire a hungry young talented YearUp student. Great career path
15% percent of workers ages 16 to 24 are unemployed, compared with 7.3 percent of all workers.
Tell your story. What toolsets do you have that can help the challenge you want to solve? Your product, your people, your network?
Be committed to the cause and truly integrate it into the business. Put this program in the right department under someone who truly gets the impact of the program and with authentically support it.
Don’t be afraid to share what didn’t work. Share the full story, not just the output (# of volunteer hours, how many $, # of customers) Where have you made a difference? Even if it’s with just a few of the starfish
“[T]here is much more to doing good work than ‘making a difference.’ There is the principle of first do no harm. There is the idea that those who are being helped ought to be consulted over the matters that concern them.” – Teju Cole, “The White Savior Industrial Complex”
The parent / child relationship. All too often the ones with the checkbook are the ones calling the shots – they need to listen to those people who know what they are doing and making impact. Unrestricted funding. Nonprofits should push back on the corporations – saying this is what we do, and how we do it and when grant structures get too complicated or are starting to fall out of your mission just for the $$ - reconsider engaging with that funder.
Toms Shoes – One for One v. 1.0 – addressing the sympton not solving the problem of poverty
https://culturalstandpoints.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/buy-one-give-what-examining-the-social-impact-of-the-one-for-one-movement/
Warby Parker – onefor one – partnering w/ Visionspring v. 2.0
Warby Parker works with its nonprofit partner VisionSpring to train men and women living in developing countries to provide eye exams and sell affordable glasses to their community. The model not only provides jobs to those in need, but it also provides community members with an invaluable service and the dignity of choice—they have the power to evaluate their own situation and determine whether or not they need glasses. This 2.0 BOGO model gets to the root cause of the problem—poverty—and safeguards against the unintended negative by-product of foreign aid, i.e. a culture of Western dependency.
The reason? A job has a far greater impact than a single pair of shoes or any other material good could ever provide.
Naked Hippie – for every organic t-shirt purchased they make a micro-loans to individiauls in developing communities and have them enact the change and identify the problems closes to than rather than an outside company. nstead of relying primarily on outside agents to enact change, this model respects and strengthens the capacity of people living in developing nations to identify their own problems and opportunities.
When it comes time where the rubber hits the road and you’ve answered the “why”, “how”, and “what” find someone to execute on that vision. If you want this vision to have legs and make impact, it’s best have one dedicated person look after this program as her sole responsibility. Hire someone who is driven by making an impact, who speaks the language of nonprofit, and can translate it to corporate and vise-versa. Find someone who loves working with people, is energized by them, asks questions, and listens. She should be someone willing to take risks (if you are), try new things and find people who are working on innovative solutions to society’s challenges. Then give them the title of Director All Things Fun, Meaningful & Rewarding. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company who has someone responsible for those “things”?
Once you lay your foundation for your foundation (or integrated philanthropy programs), you can get into the fun stuff creating programs, designing innovative grant initiatives, setting up the operations and legal structure (ok, fun for some), networking and reaching out to cool organizations with whom you want to partner and scale their impact. Remember to remain authentic to the impact you want to make.