Diary of an Intern: Recap of Weeks 1 & 2

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.

A Nonprofit Gal Goes Corporate

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

The Language of Nonprofits

Last night I attended a joint Net Impact Boston/Young Nonprofit Professionals Network event called "The Role of Philanthropy in Solving Social Issues." It featured Phil Buchanan, CEO of the Center for Effective Philanthropy in Boston. While the talk was promoted as being about philanthropy, Mr. Buchanan spent most of his time actually speaking about the "distinct value" and purpose of nonprofits and foundations as separate from their for-profit counterparts. In fact, much of Mr. Buchanan's talk was centered on a discussion of why nonprofits and businesses cannot and should not mix.

One major point of contention for Mr. Buchanan was the idea that all we need to do is take the best practices from the business world, apply them to the nonprofit sector, and instantly nonprofits will be more effective.  This was interesting to me because, while perhaps a bit oversimplified, this explanation is actually the reasoning I used to get into business school, and I think many of my classmates would agree with me. I've worked in nonprofits where the organizations' leaders had no idea how to manage the financials, or had no leadership and management training--and the organizations suffered for it. So why wouldn't I want to go get my MBA, learn how they do it in the business world, and then bring those ideas back to my nonprofit?

Interestingly, Mr. Buchanan said that while nonprofits can and must always find new ways to be effective, "business doesn't have a monopoly on effectiveness." And in fact, to assume that business principles automatically apply to nonprofit scenarios is to deny that the economics of each organization are actually different. For-profit entities have one basic performance measure; no matter what a business sells or what industry it's in, that company can be compared to other businesses using one common language: Profit. A company, no matter how ethical or charitable it might be, would never consistently charge less than what it costs to provide a service or product. And yet, this is what nonprofits do every day.

Mr. Buchanan went on to say that thinking we can have one common metric for performance in nonprofits is foolish: even if we could show that "my donation planted these trees," it's impossible to compare across different projects. Because of this, we cannot assume that taking the language of business (ie: profit) and transposing it onto a nonprofit organization will work. This was one of the big themes of the night: Nonprofits and foundations must resist the temptation to use business jargon when evaluating and implementing their programs, and instead develop their own language (a big example given was the term "Venture Philanthropy," which Mr. Buchanan said was basically a poorly-used business analogy to venture capital that made no sense).

This led into the second big theme of the night: nonprofits have a distinct purpose (separate from business and government) and it needs to stay that way. Mr. Buchanan likened nonprofits to your friendly uncle at the business dinner table who leans over and tells you, "you've had one too many drinks tonight." Nonprofits, he said, often do things that governments and businesses can't or won't do, and for that reason they need to operate differently. Sure, nonprofits should be impact-driven and they should be effective, but they need to develop their own way of getting there. And impact, he said, is not just a business term--it's about getting results, and that's something that everyone wants.

While there were many points throughout the night that I agreed with, by this stage in the talk, I got the feeling that things were taking an unexpected "us against them" turn. Yes, I can see that nonprofits are unique entities and shouldn't just replicate the business world--but should we really keep our nonprofits so separate from business and government that they don't interact? With so much talk these days about partnerships and exchange between nonprofits and for-profits, it was surprising to hear someone so clearly advocating such a distinct divide.

All this talk of nonprofits versus for-profits really hit home for me because this month I start work as a corporate philanthropy intern for a major beverage company. Given what he has said about the distinct purpose of nonprofits (and the fact that business should essentially stay out of the way), I wondered what Mr. Buchanan thought about corporate philanthropy? In general, he said he's found corporate philanthropy to not be very effective. While some companies appear to be doing real work in this area (he mentioned Levi Strauss as an example), most are not. In fact, Mr. Buchanan said that overall he believes corporate philanthropy is not philanthropy--that it's more about a strategic alignment of a brand and a cause than doing real work. He said it's "healthier" to have boundaries around nonprofits, business and governments, and that in fact there is something "scary" about companies being able to define what social causes are important.

My follow-up question to him (which I was unfortunately unable to ask at the time) is: what's so wrong about a strategic alignment of brand and cause? Just because a company is blurring the boundary between itself and nonprofits doesn't mean it's not doing good things. If WalMart wants to deliver low-cost organic produce to the masses, for example, should we say no just because this initiative is coming from a big box store? Sure, not all corporate philanthropy efforts are as effective as they could be, but neither are a lot of nonprofits. It just doesn't seem ok to dismiss for-profit community efforts just because that support isn't coming from the nonprofit sector.

In the end, it was a thought-provoking evening and Mr. Buchanan was an incredibly engaging speaker. He raised some very important questions, and he got me (and the rest of the attendees) thinking, which is always exciting. But now I'm curious: what do you think about the type of relationship that should exist between nonprofits and business? Should we have a clear division, or are partnerships the way to go? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Some additional points and resources that Mr. Buchanan raised in his talk:

• Concern about nonprofit impact metrics: Mr. Buchanan said that finding a common language to discuss impact was a huge challenge, with no right answer. He mentioned the Center for What Works, New Philanthropy Capital, and Root Cause as three organizations engaged in conversation around this issue.
• Nonprofit mergers and joint ventures: As you know from a recent post of mine, the topic of mergers in the nonprofit sector is a popular one. Mr. Buchanan addressed this issue by suggesting that all nonprofits ask themselves, "How can we create the most impact?". If that means a merger, that's what an organization should do. However, he cautioned that collaboration is simply a means to an end (and the not the end itself), and that nonprofits should not collaborate just for the sake of collaboration.