Posts Tagged ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’

Addressing Millennial Graduates

Monday, June 7th, 2010

By Marcia Bullard

Recently I was at a business retreat where, coincidentally, one of the topics was about the Millennial generation and the impact Millennials will have on the American workplace.

Post graduation you are  going to have jobs and some money to spend, so the demographers and marketers are starting to slice you and dice you.

I learned a few interesting things about you guys – such as: 40% of you sitting out there have at least one tattoo.  And if you have tattoos, 70% of you claim we won’t be able to see them when you are dressed for work!

But there were a few more serious facts, too:  You are the most diverse generation in U.S. history, politically tolerant and proficient with technology.  The most meaningful research to me are the studies that show you graduates are off the charts in terms of your sense of social responsibility.

This strikes home with me because it matches up with some thoughts I’d like to share with you as you start out on your careers.

I’ve been thinking about careers a lot lately. I’ve worked for 36 years in the media business, and I just took an early retirement so I can turn my management skills to a second career in the nonprofit sector.

You have probably spent the past month applying for jobs, writing business plans and answering the question: “What are you going to do?”

I have spent the past month going through 36 years of stuff in my office – there is a lot of ‘stuff’ — and asking my own questions: What did I do? Did my career make a difference?

I never could have imagined the career that I’ve had.  My mother thinks it’s kind of glamorous.

I grew up as one of 6 kids in a middle class family in Illinois.

I put myself through college, and got a job as a newspaper reporter.

I covered murders and floods and elections.

I did investigative stories that exposed wrongdoing.

I was asked to come to Washington to be a founding editor of the first-ever national newspaper in the U.S.  And then I got to run a business, USA WEEKEND Magazine, which now reaches 50 million people every week.

Along the way, I got to do some pretty cool things.

I traveled all over the country.

I sat in the Oval Office and interviewed President Clinton.

I talked politics and charity with Paul Newman over lunch in his New York apartment.

I got kissed by Bon Jovi.

But the most meaningful event of my career started on Leap Day in 1992 when we ran some articles in the magazine asking our readers to spend their extra 24 hours doing something good for their neighbors.

Well – 70,000 people did volunteer projects on that one Leap Day.

I was stunned.

We published many of their stories.  Then we heard from hundreds more readers, who asked us keep doing this.

We were smart enough to listen to our customers.  And now, 18 years later, Make A Difference Day is the nation’s largest day of volunteering.

More than 3 million people turn out every October now to volunteer.

That experience changed me, and it changed our magazine.

Last month we published our annual Make A Difference Awards issue.

Out of the blue, I got an e-mail, and here is what it says:

“I am 17, a cancer survivor and the co-founder of a nonprofit foundation.  I was not supposed to be these things . . . but I am.  I was diagnosed with a rare cancer when I was 6. I don’t remember much about the treatment but I remember being scared, I remember the isolation. I knew when I survived that I could not forget the kids that were still in treatment, and I learned about [your] wonderful day of service called Make A Difference Day.  I wondered if a little kid like me could really make any kind of difference to anyone, and I learned quickly that I could. I touched the lives of hundreds of hospitalized kids that first year with my service project.”

Nick gave out goody bags in a children’s cancer ward that year – and we wrote about him in the magazine.

“The [Make A Difference Day] Award changed me.  It showed me that . . . other people thought what I was doing was important.  [It is] the reason I started [my foundation]. I am thankful every day for being here to make a difference.”

Well, if I could keep just one thing from my 36-year career, I would keep that letter.

What I learned from that experience is this:

In every job and in every business, we can find ways to connect in positive ways with the communities we serve, and to make a difference. In the best cases, doing good can even help drive the business.

I admire your generation because you are creating this kind of change in our society right now.

You already have an ethic of community service.

If the demographers and marketers are right that you are the most socially responsible generation yet – and I sure hope they are – I urge you to carry that ethic with you and use it to change American business for the better.

As you start working – whether you are an employee or running your own business – help your workplaces to be good citizens to the community.

More and more companies today are creating offices of Corporate Social Responsibility, forming partnerships with nonprofits, and doing community outreach.

You can be a leader for your company in this area, whether it’s a big company or a small one.

I’ll offer one last piece of advice that will be good for your career, as well as good for your soul.

No matter what kind of job you have, find a nonprofit organization that you like, and volunteer to serve on its board.

You will get all kinds of benefits from this.

You will learn about another business with a different set of problems and different customers, you will meet other business leaders serving on that board, and you will learn a lot from them.

That will make you better at what you do in your day job.

It is also a way that you – as a business expert — can give back.

The pressures on nonprofits are increasingly great.

They need people like you, people with financial skills, technology skills, marketing skills – and social values.

You are starting out on a great journey.

I hope that when you look back – say, in about 36 years or so – that you will be able to say:

  • You worked hard, and had some good luck;
  • You cared about the people you worked for and with;
  • You helped create something  – a program, an event, a business – that made our nation and the world a better, more enjoyable, more fair, place; and
  • That you made a difference.

Good luck!

Inspired? “Like” !

Join Marcia Bullard at the National Conference on Volunteering & Service. She’ll be moderating the Social Media for Social Good Forum at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29th!

U.S. Corporations Learn Charity is Good Business

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Originally written by Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute, as an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and republished here with their permission.

Most of the last year’s business headlines have featured financial bailouts, ethical lapses, Ponzi schemes, executive bonuses and a general erosion of confidence in corporate America.
More opinion »

Yet at the same time, corporations have shown extraordinary innovation in how they are leveraging their unique assets to generate positive change in communities.

Increasingly, corporations are seeing not only the philanthropic value of giving back, but also the business value of integrating their community investment into their business practices.

A new generation of employees is demanding that their workplaces include meaningful programs that allow them to contribute their skills and passions to nonprofits.

Businesses are competing to attract these talented newcomers to the work force by offering employees meaningful ways to use their skills and talents for social good —at the beginning, middle and end of their careers.

Last year, HandsOn New Orleans and PricewaterhouseCoopers brought 150 college students, partners and high-performing staff to volunteer, side by side, in rebuilding projects in New Orleans. The PwC offered this to high prospect recruits as both an incentive and a way to orient potential new employees to their organizational culture. Through the project work, the PwC staff learned a lot about how these students might succeed as employees, and the recruits learned about the company, its values and the transformative experience of service.

Hewlett-Packard, through a pilot program by Civic Ventures, is exploring how to create a scalable process to transition experienced employees into nonprofits that could use their expertise and enthusiasm.

In this program, retired or soon-to-be retired corporate employees are recruited to do “social purpose internships” with top-notch nonprofits in need of marketing, financial, management, technical and other skills.

Hewlett-Packard finds that the internships create greater retiree participation in the company’s philanthropic causes and community programs.

In turn, the healthier the community becomes, the healthier the company will be.

We also know that consumers are more likely to support businesses that they believe are socially responsible. And corporations are increasingly invested in tackling such community and national challenges as the high school dropout rate and environmental degradation.

They know that these issues, if unresolved, will affect their own capacity and success over time. Corporations are going beyond financial contributions and are using their unique and core assets to make a difference.

We are now seeing corporations develop new initiatives that involve their customers in volunteer and philanthropic mobilization that can create new scale and impact.

On Jan. 1, Disney and HandsOn Network launched “Give A Day. Get A Day.” The premise was simple: An individual completing an eligible volunteer project received free, one-day admission to a Disney theme park in Florida or California. HandsOn Network, the largest volunteer network in the U.S., provided the opportunities and the verification of participation.

There was no precedent for this partnership, and nobody had any idea what the response would be.

Within less than 12 weeks,
1 million people had completed or committed to a service project. Many of the program’s volunteers were serving for the first time. They flooded nonprofits like HandsOn Jacksonville, which engaged twice the number of volunteers in the first three months of the year than in the entire previous year.

Another example of a corporation using its unique assets to extend its philanthropic and customer reach was the Starbucks’ “I’m In” campaign, which offered customers a free, tall, brewed coffee drink if they pledged at least five hours of volunteer time. It raised 1.2 million committed hours in less than five days.

EBay has partnered with Points of Light’s MissionFish to enable its customers to contribute a part or all of their purchase or sale to charities. Since 2003, this effort has generated $167 million for 22,000 nonprofits.

The level of trust in corporate America is at an all-time low. According to a 2009 poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, a majority of Americans gives corporate America a D or F for honesty and ethical conduct.

Yet businesses play a vital role, and, as these few examples demonstrate, they can play an increasingly important role in community problem solving.

Powerful change is possible when corporate America engages its skills, creative thinking and customer relationships, and finds nonprofit partners with shared goals and synergy.

At a time of economic dislocation and declining trust in many of our institutions, there are hopeful signs of creative new alignments, higher yield and possibilities for impact.

Let’s hope that the headlines increasingly tell us the story of how businesses are realigning to a new set of expectations from their customers, employees, and creating a double bottom line of business and social good.

Nonprofit Listening 101: Google Reader

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Social media is enabling an incredible online conversation amongst nonprofit thought leaders and innovators.

To stay relevant, nonprofits need to listen to the conversation and, at some point,  join it.

My preferred listening tool is .

Every time new content is published from a source I want to listen to, Google pulls the content into my reader so that I don’t have to visit multiple websites.

[Which I totally appreciate.]

This short video provides an overview of how  works.

For an in depth, step-by-step tutorial on setting up a Google Reader account read this short “how to” post.

Once you have created a account, you’ll want to subscribe to the blogs and other news sources that you want to read regularly.

[You can subscribe to this blog right now by .]

For step by step instructions on subscribing to the RSS feed of any blog or news source, read this.

Consider bookmarking your Google Reader Page so that you can access it easily every day.

You can use your Google Reader to listen for key words and phrases as well by signing up to recieve .

With Google Alerts, you can be notified whenever key words or phrases are mentioned on the web.

I have a Google Alert set up to notify me every time my name is mentioned on the internet.

[And this is how I keep tabs on the  fit, young woman who shares my name and runs triathlons in Hawaii. Bonus!]

I also monitor key phrases like “volunteering;” “volunteer leaders;” and “HandsOn Network”.

You can set Google Alerts to feed into your e-mail inbox or into your Google Reader.

I like the alerts sent to Google Reader because I am overloaded with e-mail already.

For a detailed tutorial on setting up Google Alerts, click here.

Now that you have an introduction to Google Reader and Google Alerts,  you can start listening.

If you don’t know where to start, here is a list of blogs that I follow.  Feel free to subscribe to any that sound interesting.

You can always “unsubscribe” if you don’t like the content.

If you have suggestions about additional blogs and news sources to follow, please leave them  in the comments section of this post.

Blogs I follow:

501derful.org
David Neff is a Teacher, Speaker, Blogger, Network Weaver, and Social Media Scientist. This is his blog.

Allison Fine
Allison Fine explores the ways that digital tools, particularly social media, are enhancing our connectedness to one another and our ability and willingness to work for the collective social good.


If you are managing your organization’s Facebook presence or a fan page for a program, this “how to” blog will keep you up to date on how to make the best use of Facebook.

Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech
Amy is dedicated to supporting and educating organizations, community groups and the wider social change sector about evolving technologies that cultivate and engage communities.

Beth’s Blog
Beth’s Blog is the epicenter of social media and social good.

Brian Solis
Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media.

Cause Global
Ms. Stepanek is an award-winning journalist and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Contribute Media, a New York-based news and information company that covers the new people and ideas of giving.


The Center for Future Civic Media supports research at MIT to innovate civic media tools and practices and test them in communities. Bridging two established programs at MIT—one known for inventing alternate technical futures, the other for identifying the cultural and social potential of media change—the Center for Future Civic Media is a joint effort between the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program.

Community Organizer 2.0
Community Organizer 2.0 is a forum for discussion and opinions on web 2.0 and non-profits. This blog considers social communities, tools and communication in the websphere.

Conversation Agent
Valeria Maltoni built one of the first online communities associated with Fast Company magazine. A brand strategist with 20 years of real-world corporate experience, 10 of which online, she’s worked with Fortune 500 and small start up companies in 5 industries. She specializes in taking companies to what’s next in their business cycle through marketing communications, customer dialogue, and brand advocacy.


CSRwire is the world’s number one resource for corporate social responsibility news as well as the hub for an influential community that has realized the value and necessity of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability.


Our mission is to educate, entertain, and inspire viewers by providing video interviews, behind-the-scenes insights, & personal profiles of social entrepreneurs & extraordinary people who are changing the world.

Frogloop
Online nonprofit marketing blog.

Issue Lab’s Comprehensive News Feed
IssueLab’s mission is to more effectively archive, distribute, and promote the extensive and diverse body of research being produced by the nonprofit sector.

Jayne’s Blog
Jayne is an independent consultant that has supported numerous organizations in communications, community/volunteer involvement, staff capacity-building, organizational management and fund-raising.

Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog
Katya Andreson’s personal blog on Robin Hood Marketing—the concept of stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes—and my life as a marketer, from Washington DC to Madagascar to points in between.

Logic & Emotion
A senior vice president at Edelman Digital with 14 years experience in the industry writes Logic + Emotion what Advertising Age calls one of the top media + marketing blogs.

Midcourse Corrections
Midcourse Corrections is about annual meeting improvement, association meetings and education, and the convergence of Web 2.0, social media, meetings, events and education.

Nonprofit Tech 2.0
Nonprofit Tech 2.0 was created and is managed by Heather Mansfield f DIOSA Communications. Fueled by a strong passion for the Internet, Heather spends her days [and some nights] helping nonprofit organizations utilize the Internet as a tool for social change.

NTEN Blog
NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.

Philanthopic
A blog of opinion and commentary from Philanthropy News Digest.

Re imagining CSR
Jessica Stannard-Friel explores innovations and trends in corporate social responsibility, with an emphasis on initiatives that serve both a social impact motive and a profit motive.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Confidence and SuperCorp.

Selfish Giving
Joe Waters talks about cause marketing.


Uplifting news.


Conversation on digital marketing

Social Citizen’s Blog
This blog is for anyone who’s energetic and passionate about social causes; who brims with new approaches and ideas for problem-solving; who’s disposed toward sharing the responsibilities and rewards of affecting change in the world; and who’s equipped with the digital tools and people power to make it happen.

Social Innovation Conversations
Social Innovation Conversations brings you the voices of the people at the forefront of creating social and environmental change in the world. Their goal is to allow you through audio lectures, panel discussions, conference recordings and audio interviews to hear what these individuals have to share, discover the models they are creating, and build on the lessons they’ve learned.

Social Media Explorer
A social media educator, a social media strategist and a public relations professional helps companies understand the social web and show them how engaging consumers online can help their business.

Socialbrite
Socialbrite is a learning hub & sharing community that brings together top experts in social media, social causes and online philanthropy. We’re here to share insights about the tools and best practices that drive the social Web and advance the social good.

Think Social
ThinkSocial is a new non-profit initiative dedicated to advancing the use of social media in the public interest.

Wild Apricot
This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations and nonprofits. They discuss issues and trends in web technologies that help your organization do more with less.

Working Wikily
The purpose of this blog is to provide practitioners in the social sector with a filter for the events that are pushing the field towards a more networked form of work and a perspective on how and why those events are unfolding.

HandsOn Network Blogs

A Lifetime of Service
The official blog of AmeriCorps Alums

HandsOn Corps
Here you will find great stories, shout outs, and happenings from HandsOn Corps – HandsOn Network’s AmeriCorps Members.

Civic. Energy. Generation
The official blog of the 2010 National Conference on Service and Volunteering

HandsOn Bay Area

HandsOn Greater Portland

HandsOn Gulf Coast

HandsOn NE Georgia

HandsOn Northeast Ohio

LA Works

Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason & Thurston Counties

Metro Volunteers

New York Cares

Seattle Works

Volunteer Center Bergen County

Volunteer Center of Story County

Volunteer Howard

Volunteer San Diego

Volunteer Santa Cruz

Allison & Associates
(Okay so this isn’t a HandsOn Network blog, but Allison is the founding Executive Director of our Phoenix affiliate and so we think of her as family.)