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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: Naked Civics – private interest/public good
This break-out session focused on the concept of Naked Civics, which strips away the angry noise that surrounds how we talk about the most important issues facing us today. It’s a new way of thinking that allows us to drive success through designed integration of activities with the elements that make communities more prosperous.
Nate Garvis, Target Corporation’s dynamic and witty strategic counsel, elaborated on the importance of de-politicizing and de-professionalizing our approaches to public policy to everyone’s benefit. Nate sees much opportunity in the world where stakeholders, industries and sectors partner with others in weaving the fabric of productive and common good-oriented civics. The only right direction is the ‘forward together’ one because it both honors community values and reveals business opportunity. The role companies can play in this new vision for building successful communities is exciting and rests on the following ideas:
- All that matters is the common good. Everything else, including all the civic, religious, commercial and political institutions are tools we have created over time in our quest for healthy, safe and innovative communities.
- The tools we have now are very powerful. We can achieve enormous good as well as terrible things with these tools. The hope is that we will use the common good lens in designing and redesigning our tools to access great opportunities.
- When values become embedded into our culture and habitats, they propagate organically. For example, environmental stewardship is most likely to become ubiquitous in a decade from now. All products will be designed to incorporate environmental considerations and the concept of being ‘green’ will be taken for granted.
- Corporate pre-regulation with the focus on common good is a successful approach that helps companies build partnerships within their communities and earn good reputation.
