Last week world leaders from government, business, foundations, research organizations and other nonprofits gathered for three days in New York at a United Nations summit to assess progress toward the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals. During the summit they reaffirmed their commitment and adopted a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date.

The summit produced a document, “Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” which, based on examples of success and lessons learned over the past 10 years, spells out specific steps to be taken to accelerate progress on each of the eight Goals. A number of members of the Boston College Center are participants in the Private Sector Forum organized by the U.N. Global Compact. These Center members made the following significant commitments toward achieving specific goals:

• Dell will give $10 million toward education technology initiatives this year.
• ExxonMobil committed to $1 million in a partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers, the International Council for Research on Women and Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory to support technologies that help women increase their productivity and participate more effectively in the economy.
• GlaxoSmithKline will provide 200 million doses of a de‐worming treatment for children, keep profit margins on drugs sold in low income countries to no more than 30 percent of the U.S. profit margin, and reinvest 20 percent of the profits made on these drugs in low-income countries into infrastructure in those countries.
• Medtronic Foundation will support key planning and advocacy activities on a global scale, Medtronic will fund activities of the NCD Alliance and two of its federations (World Heart Federation and International Diabetes Federation).
• Merck committed an estimated $840 million over the next five years through its HIV prevention and treatment, childhood asthma programs and donation of HPV vaccine, GARDASIL®, to organizations and institutions in eligible lowest income countries to enable countries to develop capacity to implement vaccination programs.
• Monster.com will expand access to job opportunities for rural youth in India by promoting access to Rozgarduniya.com, an Internet job portal, in 40,000 villages across nine states in India.
• Morgan Stanley and Shell will be part of a public/private Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, led by the United Nations Foundation, seeking to install 100 million clean-burning stoves in kitchens around the world in developing countries to reduce deaths from smoke inhalation and fight climate change. The alliance has raised $10 million on top of $50 million pledged by the United States and hopes to reach at least $250 million over 10 years.
• Novo Nordisk will continue to work toward improving the health of women and children with a specific focus on screening, treatment and care for gestational diabetes and will develop a partnership‐based program, as part of a long‐term commitment to sustainable improvement in health.
• PepsiCo committed to ensure access to clean water for 3 million people around the world by 2015.
• Pfizer committed an estimated $200 million over the next five years. Through its programs and partnerships, Pfizer will help the United Nations address key global health priorities.
• UPS International pledged $2 million to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to empower women through leadership and environmental sustainability programs in 145 countries.

At the conclusion of the summit, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the gathered leaders not to let world attention move on to other issues “when the spotlights are switched off.”

“Between now and 2015, we must make sure that promises made become promises kept,” he said. “The consequences of doing otherwise are profound: death, illness and despair, needless suffering, lost opportunities for millions upon millions of people.”

“We must hold each other accountable.”

An unlikely set of connections between of Stephen Colbert, Ben & Jerry’s, Center member Target and VolunteerMatch has led to one of the wildest cause marketing campaigns I’ve heard about in a while.

Ben & Jerry’s has create two new ice cream flavors, called Berry Voluntary and Brownie Chew Gooder, for Target’s Scoop It Forward campaign, in cooperation with VolunteerMatch, a popular web-based volunteering destination. The ice cream is sold exclusively at Target Stores as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to encourage interest and participation in education-related volunteering. Scoop It Forward raises awareness by featuring VolunteerMatch.org on the labels of the two new flavors of ice cream.

Now VolunteerMatch has issued a challenge to Stephen Colbert – star of the Comedy Central show “The Colbert Report” and inspiration for the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor Americone Dream – to see who has the better tasting and more popular flavor. “I challenge Stephen Colbert – man to man and spoon to spoon – to see who has the ice cream flavor that people prefer,” joked Greg Baldwin, president of VolunteerMatch. “Anywhere. Anytime. Any tongue.” Read the rest of this entry »

Join us October 10-12, 2010, for an important dialogue on “Service as a Solution.”

As a Premier Partner to IBM’s upcoming Service Jam, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship is pleased to extend an invitation to participate in this exciting event.

IBM’s Service Jam will bring together nonprofit organizations, corporations, academic institutions, government agencies and individuals from over 70 countries to engage in an important dialogue around “Service as a Solution.” Through IBM’s Jam technology, participants will collaborate virtually to generate breakthrough ideas that will redefine service and social innovation for the future.

Why participate?
Service Jam is a unique opportunity for you to connect with prominent leaders and network with other volunteers in the social sector. This virtual event provides a platform for you to share your experiences in community service, voice opinions and gather new ideas and techniques for your organization and volunteer programs. This is your chance to take an active role in helping to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. Read the rest of this entry »

On September 28, Center member Timberland will host a stakeholder call about The Real Impact of Tree Planting. Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz will host the call and will be joined by David Deppner, founder of Trees for the Future. Timberland has planted more than 1 million trees since 2001 worldwide as part of its commitment to create environmental and economic benefits in the places its employees live and work. Trees for the Future operates in over 26 countries around the world and shares Timberland’s vision for tree planting to be a viable way to create sustainable agriculture, environmental restoration, and socio-economic development.

Sign up for the call by emailing csrinfo@timberland.com. Be sure to register by Sept. 24!

Hear podcasts from previous calls and see more details at http://earthkeeper.com/CSR/Stakeholder-Engagement-Calls.

The following blog is excerpted from In Good Company: Vault’s CSR Blog.

There is an argument that some companies – such as those that deal in weapons and tobacco – just can’t do corporate responsibility in a meaningful way. As a result, they are often excluded from CSR rankings and benchmarking exercises. But what about a company like McDonald’s under constant fire for its products? How does the world’s largest fast-food chain practice corporate social responsibility that is both contextual and real?

At McDonald’s recent inclusion and diversity benchmarking event, Senior Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility Kathleen Bannan began her presentation with a statement that will resonate with several regular readers of this space: “CSR is everybody’s business.” Read the rest of this entry »

If a group of volunteers plant a tree in deforested woods but nobody knows how many where there, how long they were there or whether the tree grew, did they do any good? It’s hard to say.

But the Points of Light Institute has new reporting standards for employee volunteer programs that can help eliminate the unknown from the start.

Employee volunteer programs are on the rise as their value is recognized by companies. Once established, the first challenge for program administrators and managers is to determine what it takes to deliver that value to the business and the community. What level of participation makes an impact? Read the rest of this entry »

Two Community Involvement courses to be offered October 20-22 in Phoenix

It’s time to take advantage of the career-long learning opportunities for community involvement managers from the Carroll School of Management’s Center for Corporate Citizenship. You know the ways of doing business and working in the community are rapidly changing. These professional development courses allow you to learn about the latest best practices, pick up tools for managing your community programs and network with peers in other companies who are managing the same kind of challenges. Complete all five courses and you will be awarded a Certificate in Corporate Community Involvement from Boston College. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft is ramping up efforts already under way to support NGOs in Russia and other countries after a New York Times report on Russian officials using a pretext of anti-piracy enforcement to harass environmental advocates and other opposition groups.

To protect NGOs from questionable anti-piracy enforcement actions, Microsoft is creating a new unilateral software license to ensure NGOs have free, legal copies of products. The unilateral license will automatically cover software already installed on NGOs’ computers, whatever its legal status and with no action required.

Microsoft already makes free software available to NGOs in Russia and other countries through its Infodonor program. In fact, in fiscal 2010 Microsoft donated $504 million in software to almost 43,700 organizations worldwide.

To learn more about how Microsoft has taken responsibility in addressing this difficult situation, see the blog by Brad Smith, senior vice president and Microsoft general counsel, Anti-Piracy Enforcement and NGOs, on The Official Microsoft Blog.