The Corporate Giving Issue - kciphilanthropy.com

1 2012: Bul leti2012: Issue 1 Inour ongoing attempt to navigate thechallenges that impact our sector, there sno question that change is the only con-stant. Daily news reports dwell on eco-nomic issues, the volatile Euro zone, ongo-ing unease about global markets andaging, shrinking donor bases. With all this bad news , one could easily be pessimisticabout the Canadian charitable yet, amidst this doom and gloom aresome glimmers of hope. Statistics Canadareports thatCanadians made charitabledonations of almost $ billion in 2010 per cent increase over , while the ongoing economic volatilityundeniably casts a certain degree of un-certaintyovercorporate Canada, manyCanadian companies remained profitablethroughout 2011. And, perhaps mostimportantly, their commitment to supportthe charitable sector remains commitment came through loud andclear at a series of KCI-facilitated round-tables with leading companies from acrossthe country.

2 Wanting to better understandhow Corporate Canada is now making Giving decisions, KCI invited a number ofcommunity relations professionals to sharetheir thoughts and insights about a widevariety of topics. And in this Issue , we giveyou a seat at the boardroom table by providing details about what corporatedonors are looking for in their relationshipswith their charitable some of the trends we ve identifiedmay not necessarily seem new , what isnew is the intensity, frequency and sheernumber of companies taking this tells us that as businessesbecome more business-like with their Giving strategies, so too must our sectorbecome more business-like in formulat-ing our asking the most important conclusionwe ve drawn from our consultations is thatcorporate Canada wants to be a partnerwith the charitable sector not just asource of funds for projects, programs while some leading charitableorganizations have adopted this philoso-phy, we heard from our Corporate partnersthat far too many charities seeking theirsupport underestimate what corporationscan (and want)

3 To bring to the table and, asaresult, underestimate the potential toharness behalf of the entire KCI team acrossCanada, I applaud the Corporate sector forits consistent generosity and commitmentto community investment, and sincerelythank the companyrepresentatives inVancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto andHalifax who carved time out of their busyschedules toparticipate in our conversa-tions. We were not only delighted by theirwillingness to participate and by theenthusiasm and candor of the insightsthey shared, but were truly inspired by thepassion and desire shared by these compa-ny leaders about making a you a productive and fulfilling Spears President and CEO The Corporate Giving Issue WINTER 20112 Our roundtables with representativesof Corporate Canada helped us bet-terunderstand their thinking related tothe support of the charitable sector. Andone keytheme thatemerged is thatthe word philanthropy itself is being replaced by new terminology such as community investment , Corporate citi-zenship and Corporate social responsibil-ity.

4 Barbara Simic, Manager, CommunityInvestment, ConocoPhilipps, Calgary,sums up this change by saying, We seethe word philanthropy as describingmore of an individual person s engage-ment and responsibility. Far from just semantic, this change in vernacular reflects a fundamental shift in how corporations are thinking aboutcharitable support. Corporate givingtoday is more focused, forward looking,leveraged for effect and targeted tomake measurable, tangible differences inthe communities where businesses oper-ate. It has moved from a largely reactiveto a strategic posture, with leaders recog-nizing the value of linking communityinvestment with various aspects of busi-ness, such as talent recruitment andretention, customer relations and reputa-tion we explore the trends that emergedfrom our discussions, we ll look at somesolid examples of how leading compa-nies aresupporting charities and howour sector can successfully anticipate,adapt and )

5 Aligning community relationships tobusiness strategiesThe trend of aligning community invest-ment programs with business strategiesbegan to appear a number of years by a number of early adopters ,this trend has gained significant momen-tum over the last several years, and today,the vast majority of companies now seekevidence of business benefits in additiontofulfillmentof their charitable goalswhen making Giving decisions benefitslike distinguishing the organization fromits competitors, enhancing its corporatereputation and galvanizing its this means for charities is that thedays of corporations responding positive-ly to we re a good organization and weneed money proposals arelong that are successfully attractingcorporate support are first doing theirhomework to understand the businessand community investment objectives of their prospective Corporate partnersand presenting proposals and plans thatdemonstrate why we re a good fit for you.

6 When looking at whether or not charitiesThe new philanthropy of Corporate givingWINTER 20113are a good fit, corporations are lookingfor answers to the following questions:What is your understanding of the corpo-ration s current realities and future direc-tions? What are its respective goals inresponding to community issues andhow does your work help to achievethem? How do we each define and valueresults and impact? Who are our mutualstakeholders? What distinguishes youand the services you provide? And withwhom do you partner to achieve yoursuccess? The approach that Teck Resources hastaken in its community relations is a goodillustration of a corporation that hasaligned its business and communityinterests. With zinc operations in Canada,the United States and Peru, Teck pro-duces approximately 646,000 tonnes ofzinc concentrates and 278,000 tonnes ofrefined zinc. When the company firstlearned how devastating an impact zincdeficiency has on the lives of people indeveloping countries (almost half a mil-lion children and 800,000 adults die eachyear),it recognized it had a role to play tofind solutions and its Zinc and Healthprogram became part of a signatureglobal citizenship initiative to raiseawareness about the dangers of zinc defi-ciency and help save children s has also become involved on theground with some charitable and gov-ernment partners in tackling this program is the Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH).

7 In partnership withthe MicronutrientInitiativeand theGovernment of Canada, Teck will work todevelop and sustain zinc treatment pro-grams that help save the lives of childrenaffected by zinc deficiency. The first proj-ect will support the Ministry of Health inSenegal to dramatically scale up the useof zinc supplements, along with oralrehydration salts, for the treatment partnership demonstrateshow responsible businesses can take anactive role and form working relation-ships with non-profit organizations tohavean impact on an Issue of ) Creating Shared Value: A Win/WinPropositionSome corporations are taking the con-cept of aligning business interests withcommunity relationships one step fur-ther. Described as creating shared value,corporations that adopt this approach donot distinguish between business and community interests, arguing that theyare, in fact, one in the same. While sharedvalue is still in its genesis, a growing num-ber of companies have embarked onefforts to animate the philosophy by re-conceiving the intersection between cor-porate performance and society with agoal of seamlessly integrating the creating mutual interdependencybetween their organizations and theMaking a difference in different ways: Small and medium size businessesWhen thinking of Corporate support ofthe charitable sector, we tend to focuson the big players.

8 And whileundoubtedly, large corporations arekey supporters, it is important not tolose sight of the significant role playedby small and medium sized business in supporting charities in Canada. Andit is also important to recognize thattheir approach and philosophymay be different than that of their many cases, small to medium sizebusiness community involvement istied to owners or management s per-sonal philanthropic small and medium sizebusi-nesses must focus most of their atten-tion on core business needs, they maynot have the time or resources to iden-tify specific community needs ordevelop strategic long-term partner-ships with charitable charitable organizations aremaking it easy for companies of anysizetoparticipatein fun turnkeyfundraising events such as ProstateCancer Canada s Movember , offeringfree promotional posters and donationboxes, a free mobile app for employeesto track and solicit donations.

9 Andopportunities for prizes and visibilityon the fundraising website and socialmedia Board of Trade or Chamber ofCommerce organizations offer net-working benefits for charities to createbrand awareness and identify compa-nies thatshare an affinity for theircause, and could well be a very interest-ing platformto help promote Giving andvolunteerism. As well, Imagine Canada,Volunteer Canada and various commu-nity foundations across the country arealso taking leadership roles to advancephilanthropy and engage the next gen-eration of business leaders at all levels. Charities that are successfullyattracting Corporate supportare first doing their homeworkto understand the businessand philanthropic objectivesof their prospective corporatepartners and presenting pro-posals and plans that demon-strate why we re a good fit for you .WINTER 20114causes they support, companies discoverthat deeper engagement naturally leadstoshared value. As companies becomemore engaged, more opportunitiesemerge for partnerships that can acceler-ate and expand the potential for socialimpact.

10 A Sears Canada charitable part-nership effectively illustrates how creat-ing shared value has been a win/winproposition for both it and its Power, Sears Canada s DivisionalVice President, Corporate Affairs says thatthe national retailer s relationship withBoys and Girls Clubs of Canada hasendured because it s still seen to be justas relevant and natural a fit for Sears as itwas when they first began their associa-tion over four decades ago. Boys and Girls Clubs provide safe andwholesome after-school after school time-slot has alwaysbeen worrisome for parents it s a timewhen kids can get in with the wrongcrowd or engage in unsupervised, unsafeor risky activities. Parents are Sears s cus-tomers and associates (employees). Ourpartnership resonates with them as wellas our other stakeholders, and it s inte-grated into all aspects of our business. Point-of-sale Round Up Your Purchase Giving , converting Sears reward points tocash for a donation (which Sears match-es), or the in-store Tree of Wishes (storespartner with Clubs in their communitiesand ensure needy kids receive Christmasgifts) are all popular and well-received bycustomers.