CausePlanet Blog

According to the authors of our current Page to Practice™book summary, Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World, a new breed of philanthropists like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are leading this revival and reinvention of an old tradition that has its roots in the Andrew Carnegie era – and which has the potential to solve many of the biggest problems facing society today herunterladen. This book examines this new movement and its implications, and shows how a new group of wealthy, motivated donors has set out to change the world.

I had the good fortune of catching a rare interview of Melinda Gates and found myself awestruck by the impact her foundation work was having on the various issues they’ve chosen to focus on outlook messages automatically. It was thrilling to hear their current and future plans to wipe out some of the long-standing problems we face in our global community. This book explores how the generosity of the Melindas, Bills and Warrens of the world can change the face of our societal issues and how we can cooperate in the nonprofit trenches stickmotive kostenlosen.

Philanthrocapitalism will have huge implications for the nonprofit sector, as well as the world. Giving may well replace government spending as the greatest force behind societal change, especially as governments continue to make budget cuts to social programs. In addition, more and more people are realizing that government can’t solve big global problems alone. Philanthrocapitalists have a certain freedom to do the risky, innovative things that government can’t, and to find new solutions to problems. They can bring together business, nonprofits, governments, social entrepreneurs and philanthropists in innovative partnerships. Giving has a crucial role to play, and nonprofits need to tap into this new trend to make the changes they seek.

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Kellie McElhaney is on a mission to transform the way corporations do business herunterladen. As the founding director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Responsible Business, an adjunct professor at the Haas School of Business, a corporate consultant and a sought-after speaker, McElhaney has a highly-visible platform from which to make her case age of empires 2 kostenlos downloaden vollversion deutsch chip. In her recent book, Just Good Business: The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility with Brand, McElhaney presents a compelling argument for why businesses should integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their core business strategies filme kostenlos downloaden pc. She outlines the features of successful CSR strategies and provides real-world examples of best and worst practices.

While the book – a quick and entertaining read – is intended for business executives, nonprofit leaders can learn a lot from its insights.

CSR is a growing field. Consumers are demanding that companies become more responsible. Research confirms what we all intuitively know: Employees are more loyal, productive and satisfied when the companies they work for are ethical and give back to their communities. And, studies show that CSR is good for the bottom line.

However, many companies’ CSR strategies fall short. McElhaney points out that nonprofits have what corporations need to make their CSR strategies successful. Nonprofits have the trust of community members and constituents, credibility, knowledge of social issues and how to address them, and a proven track record for making a difference. Unfortunately, nonprofits typically just ask for money from corporations instead of leveraging their strengths in forming CSR partnerships. As McElhaney stresses repeatedly, “This is a major missed opportunity for nonprofits.”

This is a clear call to action for nonprofit leaders to position their organizations to reap the rewards of CSR initiatives.

Nonprofit leaders should meet this challenge head on and not let preconceived notions of the corporate sector hold them back from pursuing strategic partnerships. Sure, not all businesses are “good guys,” but nonprofits should avoid falling into the trap of a knee-jerk dismissal of these opportunities on “principle.” They should not let themselves be type-cast as the type of NGOs that McElhaney describes as those “for whom being cynical is easy” or, worse yet, “whiney.”

Instead, read the book to better understand what businesses are seeking in these partnerships. Then, figure out whether a CSR partnership is right for your nonprofit and, if so, what you want to get out of it (in addition to financial support). Consider the strengths that your nonprofit brings to the table and develop a set of criteria to use in finding and shaping a partnership that will support you in achieving your strategic objectives and furthering your mission.

OK, so TOMS Shoes isn’t technically a nonprofit – and this blog is about the nonprofit sector – but it’s hard to resist talking about a company that runs itself like a social movement family tree for free. The premise of TOMS – after the concept of “shoes for tom-orrow” – is simple: For every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need herunterladen. To quote the company’s Web site, TOMS is “using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good.” If I have to make a connection to the nonprofit sector, TOMS would be a prime example of corporate philanthropy – or what one of our contributors talks about when she discusses the “Triple Bottom Line” – addressing social, environmental and economic objectives dropbox paper bilder herunterladen.

We’re seeing this more and more: entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is one of the more well-known social enterprises. Their ice cream company donates 7.5 percent of pre-tax profits to nonprofits, uses environmentally-sensitive packaging products, and supports “employee-led community action teams.”

TOMS is still new. But, since its inception in 2006 when Blake Mycoskie, a young American traveler who decided to help Argentinean children with no shoes to protect their feet, the company has given over 140,000 pairs of shoes to children in need through the One for One model. In 2009, TOMS plans to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children around the world.

What struck me most when I read about Mycoskie and his company was this quote by clothing designer John Whitledge: “Blake ends up doing all the things everyone else just talks about. He just goes for it and learns along the way.” While most of us long to make a difference and struggle with how best to allocate our resources – be it our time or money – Mycoskie just does. He quickly found out about podoconiosis, a form of elephantiasis believed to be caused by walking barefoot in silica-rich soil. And, as Mycoskie said in The Denver Post, “It’s literally shoes, not medicine, that cure it. The idea is to hyper-focus on this one area, then take what we do there to someone like Bill Gates, who could eradicate this disease worldwide” (April 23, 2009). (That’s the Bill Gates, the epitome of social entrepreneurialism.)

Mycoskie and his company are inspiring, and he and people like him are the wave of the future. With more Mycoskies and Gates’ in the world, maybe our societal problems will get solved.

It was encouraging to read The Necessary Revolution for this month’s Page to Practice™ spotweb nzb downloaden. It’s easy to focus on who’s not doing their part to help combat global climate change – and, by doing so, shift the blame for the crisis – so, it was heartening to read that, in fact, many big companies – including Coke and DuPont, just to name two – are taking the lead in global sustainability efforts tier spiele jetzt herunterladen.

Coke, for example, has partnered with WWF, the largest multinational conservation organization in the world, to conserve water resources and replace the water used to produce its drinks microsoft outlook kostenlos download windows 7. And DuPont was ranked number one in the United States and number two globally by Ceres, a well-respected environmental watchdog, for meeting the business challenges associated with climate change.

What the authors of Necessary Revolution stress, however, is that even if a business such as DuPont wants to commit to sustainable practices, partnerships with nonprofits are essential to make any real progress. Coke couldn’t do it alone; it needed WWF’s expertise to help it better understand water conservation and how water affects whole systems, particularly within the communities where Coke operates. Dupont reached out to Greenpeace, which had spent decades attacking the company.

Companies are starting to realize that they must partner with nonprofits when developing any business strategy that involves sustainability. No one entity – not even a global nonprofit such as WWF – can address sustainability issues alone. Companies can offer market clout and financial resources; nonprofits can offer their credibility, knowledge of the larger system, and their ability to bring the right people to the table; and governments have regulatory power. All are needed to make any real progress.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire this weekend, coincidentally at the same time I am reading The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist herunterladen. Although I am only a short way into the book, it has already made a powerful impact on me.

Twist talks about her first visit to India in 1983 and the crushing poverty she saw even then zertifikat aus browser herunterladen. She describes the thousands of people—beggars and others—who “lived in the airport and on the edges of the roads to the airport, as well as in the streets of Bombay, on the sidewalks, in the doorways and stairwells — everywhere.” She walks through the streets of Bombay with Ramkrishna Bajaj, one of India’s leading industrialists and philanthropists, and is struck by his seeming obliviousness to the sea of people that they, literally, had to walk over skip bo castaway caper download free full version. What she comes to realize is that, in order for Ramkrishna to maintain his vision and purpose of helping the poor, he had to develop a certain kind of blindness to the everyday poverty on the streets.

I understand this. Begging in India is an industry, where families often mutilate their children to increase their shock value and to bring in more money as beggars. People who give money from shock or guilt are unwittingly supporting this brutality. Even in the United States, people debate the effectiveness of giving the homeless handouts on street corners. Giving a quarter to a homeless person is seemingly harmless, but do those handouts perpetuate our homeless problem? Would your donation, however small, be better spent by giving it to the shelters and other organizations who work to break the cycle of homelessness?

With these thoughts swirling around in my head, I watched Slumdog Millionaire and saw images of the devastating poverty Twist describes in her book. Although I know Slumdog is a movie and not a documentary, it was filmed entirely in and around Mumbai, and beautifully captures the energy and despair of the slums. It is impossible to watch this film and not feel a visceral reaction to the poverty and the accompanying brutality on the screen.

But it is just a movie, after all, so it’s easy to walk away from the problem, to turn a blind eye, as Ramkrishna needs to do when walking the streets of Bombay, or as many of us need to do when we ignore a homeless person on the street corner. When viewed as a whole, the problem seems insurmountable. So, what can we do?

While reading The Soul of Money, I was reminded of Mother Teresa’s famous adage: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Some powerful words to think about as we begin the New Year with a new administration in office. We can’t look to President Obama to solve the world’s problems, but we can help him by doing our part.