July 24, 2013 7:15 am – 10:00 am Hilton San Francisco Union Square Grand Ballroom B 333 O’Farrell Street San Francisco, CA
On July 24th the San Francisco Business Times will honor the Top Corporate Philanthropists in the Bay Area at the 2013 Corporate Philanthropy Summit and Awards, followed by a panel discussion featuring a diverse group of leaders in corporate philanthropy discussing their philanthropic practices and policies.
Call For Nominations
The San Francisco Business Times invites Bay Area corporate grantmakers attend this year’s summit, as well as, nominate a worthy Bay Area corporation to one of the four “Beyond the Check Awards”:
Community Partnership in Sustainability
Community Change and Impact
Community Health Partner
Community Education Partner
These “Beyond the Check Awards” are not about the money or size of the company but rather the success of the corporation’s initiative in your community that is making a difference.
Nomination Process
Please go to www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/nomination/ to fill out an award category form for the corporation you are nominating. Please direct any questions to Tom Van Ess, Community Partnership Manager at the San Francisco Business Times at tvaness@bizjournals.com or 415.288.4932.
Select one of four categories in the 2013 Corporate Philanthropy Awards program. It is possible for a company to be nominated in several categories. However, please select the category you feel the company is most qualified for and respond to the questions. Each company is eligible to win in one of the four categories per year. An independent selection committee will request supplemental materials only if clarification is required.
The independent selection committee consisting of experts with backgrounds in corporate community affairs, philanthropy, non-profit management, education, and healthcare will select one winner in each category. The San Francisco Business Times will notify award recipients in mid-June. Recipients will be honored at the 13th Annual Corporate Philanthropy Summit & Awards on July 24th at the Hilton San Francisco on O’Farrell.
Last month NCG corporate members had the opportunity to learn more about Shared Value from FSG Managing Director Lalitha Vaidyanathan. One of the presenters at NCG’s 2012 Corporate Philanthropy Institute, Lalitha was invited by NCG’s Corporate Contributions Roundtable to return and elaborate more on the concept of Shared Value which is still in its nascent stages of development within the field..
Program attendees were curious to learn more about Shared Value, how they could activate a discussion about it within their own companies and organizations, the metrics used to evaluate it, and how to spot opportunities for implementing it.
What Is Shared Value?
“Corporations have assets beyond what they’ve set aside for philanthropy…so how can those be used to create impact?” -Lalitha Vaidyanathan
As our society has evolved, so has the role of corporations in society. And Lalitha explained that corporate philanthropy itself has also evolved-not that one practice has ceased to be used, but rather there are more types of corporate philanthropy in practice:
Traditional Corporate Philanthropy: separated from the core business; its purpose was to create community goodwill.
Aligned Corporate Philanthropy: aligned to and leveraged with the core business, but not tied to the business’ strategy.
Shared Value: mobilizing whole business to impact society in a way that benefits the business; meaningful social impact that is sustained through the business.
Still not sure what Shared Value is? Here’s a video by FSG that provides more tangible examples:
Main Points & Questions
While the program itself evolved into a conversation amongst attendees and Lalitha, here are some of the main points and questions that arose:
You can’t do business and grow while doing harm to the world-it’s not longer a sustainable business practice as society will definitely push back.
Business and the world need to co-exist. “We can help society grow and help our business” at the same time.
What are the areas in society that can benefit from our company’s assets and expertise? How can this lead to benefits for our business at the same time?
What Does Shared Value Look Like?
“Shared Value is a management principle that seeks opportunity for business in solving social problems. Companies can solve problems in three ways that can lead to competitive wins.”-FSG website
Reconceiving Products and Services: a business tries to understand the social issues affecting a market they want to enter and then try to either help solve those social issues. The business impact would be increased revenue, market share and/or profitability. Example: GE’s Healthymaginations wanted to address infant mortality. After first trying to develop incubators for rural areas, they partnered with Embrace to distribute the Infant Warmer-that required no electricity-in rural areas around the globe.
Redefining Productivity in the Value Chain: a company can examine its products, supply chain and reconceive them in order to address or mitigate a societal problem. The business impact would be reduced cost, increased productivity, and/or improved quality. Example: “Excess packaging of products and greenhouse gases are not just costly to the environment but costly to the business. Wal-Mart, for example, was able to address both issues by reducing its packaging and rerouting its trucks to cut 100 million miles from its delivery routes in 2009, saving $200 million even as it shipped more products.”-”Creating Shared Value” by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, Harvard Business Review
Strengthening Clusters and Frameworks: a company invests outside its operations to solve problems that are most connected to its growth and productivity potential. The business impact would be improved quality workforce and/or secured quality of supply. Example: Cisco saw their clients had a dearth of Network Administrators. This was a constraint on their business. To address this issue Cisco established the Network Academy, targeting community colleges in low-income communities.
Key Takeaways
Positive Social Impact + Positive Business Impact = only when you do both is it Shared Value.
Shared Value doesn’t have to replace the corporate philanthropy you currently do, it can be part of your philanthropy portfolio.
Most companies start philanthropy from a desire to increase growth or address a reputation issue, but society is becoming more savvy and if you aren’t really solving problems you set out to address (or if you create problems through your business practice) your approach won’t be viewed as genuine.
NCG was pleased to partner once again with the San Francisco Business Times as a sponsor of the 2012 Corporate Philanthropy Awards which was held Wednesday, July 18 at the Fairmont hotel here in San Francisco.
We were also excited to see so many of our members honored during the awards breakfast.
Here are some member highlights:
The list of Top Corporate Philanthropists in the Greater Bay Area included 18 NCG members–28% of the list.
NCG members took 13 of the top 20 spots.
NCG member JPMorgan Chase & Co broke into the top 5 for the first time.
NCG member Wells Fargo received a “Beyond the Check” Community Partner in Sustainability award.
NCG member Clorox Company received a “Beyond the Check” Community Change and Impact award.
Several NCG members were recognized with the Community Commitment Award given to companies who gave 1% or more of their company-wide net profit to community organizations. They included: JPMorgan Chase, PG&E, Salesforce.com, Levi Strauss, GAP, Clorox and Bank of Marin.
The top 10 corporate givers honored at this year’s event were:
Google
Chevron
Wells Fargo*
Safeway Inc.
JPMorgan Chase & Co.*
Cisco Systems Inc.*
Bank of America*
PG&E*
Genentech Inc.*
Intel Corp.
*NCG member
Congratulations to all the award recipients and honorees at this year’s event. And for a complete list of the 65 corporate grantmakers honored, check out the latest issue of the San Francisco Business Times.
