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In 2007 Booz Allen Hamilton set out to help small nonprofits in the Washington, D.C. area gain access to expert advice and guidance on management and fundraising that was otherwise unattainable for them due to cost. In the four years since, the Booz Allen Hamilton Nonprofit Development Conference Series has grown exponentially and now successfully serves more than 400 unique nonprofit organizations with top tier guest speakers from around the metropolitan area who provide the sorely needed advice and guidance.
2010 Conference: From social contract to social innovation: five strategies for driving business growth
By Alyson Genovese, Guest Blogger
It’s nearing the end of day one at the International Corporate Citizenship Conference. Usually at conferences, I find that by 3pm participants have retreated to hotel rooms to catch up on emails, call home or start to sift through the business cards gathered throughout the day. But today is different. Sitting – and standing - along the wall in a classroom at the Intercontinental along with me are 100+ participants who are eager to hear how corporate citizenship strategies can demonstrate both social and business innovation. It’s the Holy Grail. And it’s 3pm. And I’m ready.
Facilitated by Lew Karabatsos of Monster Worldwide, Jason Saul from Mission Measurement and Marlene Ibsen of the Travelers Companies led us through a discussion of whether or not our companies’ philanthropic initiatives are charitable (“nice to do”) or strategic (“imperative to do”). Jason recommends examining four items when building community programs:
- Look at social change as a business strategy
- Engage the core business functions to solve a societal problem
- Examine how this strategy will drive revenue or save resources
- Determine how the program will use a long-term, sustainable model
Marlene, from Travelers Companies, had a great example. Headquartered in Hartford, CT, Travelers was disheartened to see that the Hartford Public Schools continued to fall behind the nation in testing scores, as drop-out rates increased, and despite large philanthropic investments from Travelers and other companies within the insurance industry. Additionally, the industry is starting to worry about a shrinking talent pool from which to garner future employees. Travelers began working with the public school system and other insurance company representatives to launch High School, Inc. – Hartford’s Insurance and Financial Services Academy. This innovative school is helping provide mentoring, internships and targeted education for at-risk students while at the same time addressing the long-term needs of Hartford’s insurance industry of finding qualified candidates for future employment. Just opened in Fall 2009, it’s too early to give concrete results, but anecdotal feedback from employees, students and parents are encouraging.
This example represents what Jason calls “Building Social Capital” and shows how community investment programs can demonstrate solutions to business needs. Jason stated five strategies on how businesses can build both business and social capital by:
- Examining back-door market entry by removing social barriers
- Pipelining talent into your workforce
- Investigating sub-market products to address unmet market needs
- Creating customers that are brand advocates via emotive customer bonding
- Conducting “reverse lobbying” by engaging the government as a business partner
Excellent stuff. It’s 4:15. My head is swimming. And I can’t wait for tomorrow.
