Several years ago, I attended a forum in Washington, DC on supply chain responsibility.  At the time, I was managing corporate social and environmental responsibility communications for two different clients, both with vast, global supply chains.  Supplier responsibility was an area of constant focus and opportunity for these companies.
 
The forum was a quiet, routine affair as these things go, and polite.  I saw a few participants looking a bit sleepy at the end of one session in particular – where representatives from three Fortune 500 multi-nationals spent the better part of an hour outlining the steps their companies had taken to eliminate child labor from their supply chains (the inspections and audits, on the ground partnerships, tracking and reporting).
 
Everything changed when, during the Q&A period, a young woman in the audience stood up and posed a question to the panelists.  She worked for a small NGO with operations in India, and noted that many families there desperately rely on the income of all family members – parents, grandparents, and yes, children.  She spoke briefly but compellingly, painting a picture of poverty and need that most in the room couldn’t comprehend.  The panelists look puzzled, and there were murmurs of surprise and disbelief throughout the audience.
 

I love Scott E. Page's book, "The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies." First of all, he is a kindred spirit, talking about joy, diversity, and Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk (my favorite). He also opens his chapters with delightful and illuminating quotations from an eclectic array of historians, rock stars, writers, comedians, philosophers, and others.

"What each of us has to offer, what we can contribute to the vibrancy of our world, depends on our being different in some way, in having combinations of perspectives, interpretations, heuristics, and predictive models that differ from those of others. These differences aggregate into a collective ability that exceeds what we possess individually," shows Page, a professor of complex systems, political science, and economics.

I have seen this phenomenon with many dozens of nonprofit boards..

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According to Harold ("Terry") McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), nonprofit board service is a key qualification for any executive he might hire or promote. In a private interview with me, Terry McGraw explained that "If I don't see that [board service], I'm discouraged about the candidate. I want to see how complete a person is. Board participation tells me a lot about someone's interest and experience in teambuilding and openness toward coaching. A candidate who doesn't serve on nonprofit boards is underdeveloped."

McGraw also believes that as the CEO, he needs to be a role model through his own community service and nonprofit board participation. "Otherwise, no one will take this seriously." McGraw chairs the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), and serves on the boards of the New York Public Library, National Organization on Disability, National Academy Foundation, Council for Economic Education, and Prep for Prep, among others. McGraw also serves on the boards of public companies.

Just like the CEOs I consult to and write about, McGraw's very first board of directors experiences...

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Corporate social and environmental performance is all the rage in today’s investment environment. With increasing frequency, analysts are monitoring, evaluating, and ranking that performance. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) lists – ranging from Corporate Knight’s Global 100 to Ethisphere Institute’s Most Ethical Companies and Corporate Responsibility magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens – grow more plentiful and visible each day. Publishers now vie to position their lists as strategic holy grails for corporations making the cut, and Wall Street has taken notice. Nearly one out of every nine dollars of professionally managed assets in the United States – valued at an estimated $2.71 trillion – has been invested in companies that perform well in CSR rankings.

“Company stakeholders from investors to customers to employees to regulators watch the 100 Best Corporate Citizens List closely, and are using it now more than ever to make important decisions,” said Corporate Responsibility magazine publisher Jay Whitehead in a recent press release. “As a result, making the List is worth millions or even billions in increased shareholder and brand value.”

This should be good news for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Monsanto which, despite their notoriety, have been counted as “Best Citizens” by Corporate Responsibility numerous times. “When someone asks you to define corporate transparency, show them this list,” touts the magazine. But to an increasing number of observers, the transparency seems elusive – as does a clear indication of what the CSR industry stands for.

The latest Cone Trend Tracker reports that 59% of American consumers "are more likely to buy a product associated with the [nonprofit-corporate] partnership," and that 50% of consumers are "more likely to donate to the nonprofit" when nonprofits partner with companies. By leveraging their good will, companies advance their own interests, while also helping nonprofits to promote their causes in making the world better.

For business people interested in participating on nonprofit boards, these survey results are helpful. Based on the responses, you can see that nonprofits need your skills, experience, and expertise to help shape their brands and build awareness, which can ultimately yield additional funding for their causes. In working with nonprofit CEOs and boards, I can attest that the issues of brand and identity are among the top agenda items, and integral to the organization's mission, vision, core strategy, and revenues.

Most relevant to this point, survey results show that "nonprofit marketing elements that help capture consumer attention include having an association with a special event or time period (81%); a memorable color, logo, or icon that symbolizes the cause or issue (79%) and the involvement of a celebrity or other notable spokesperson (61%)."

Businesses can help themselves while helping nonprofits. Here are four particularly powerful ways that I recommend to businesses to advance nonprofits, while enhancing their own brands;

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With just over two months left until I graduate from business school, I’ve started to reflect on what I’ve accomplished over the last two years.

Without a doubt, the most fulfilling experiences of my MBA program have been the chances I’ve had to engage in real-world consulting projects for corporate and nonprofit clients.

In the last four semesters, I’ve worked on some pretty terrific marketing and corporate social responsibility projects – including brand audits, marketing research plans, stakeholder communications strategies, and social media tactics.

But perhaps my most satisfying consulting project was a sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement plan for Praxair, a $9B Fortune 300 industrial gas manufacturer in Danbury, CT. I’ve talked about this project in past posts, and I was thrilled to see that Boston University recently issued a press release about this engagement (including a quote from yours truly!).

These consulting projects have been the most rewarding part of my MBA, but they’ve also been the most challenging and time-consuming. In the end, though, I’ve signed up for all of them without hesitation – in large part because I (and many of my fellow MBA classmates) believed they’d serve as proof of our experience to potential employers come recruiting season.

We stand at the threshold of a moral crossroads in American business. Which way will we turn in the new decade is the dilemma before us. Do we retreat to old and tired patterns of indifference? Or do we find the courage to cut a new and hopeful path to the common good?
 
The heated debates of healthcare, bailouts, banking reform, financial regulation, usury laws, consumer protection, home loan modifications, small business support, social assistance programs-all point to one fundamental issue - the battle for a moral framework. What do we value in America? Easy Money or Hard work? Self-interest or Community? Vengeance or Forgiveness? Indifference or Compassion?
 
Do we continue to let 45 million Americans suffer without healthcare as long as we have access to it ourselves? Should we protect unsuspecting or reckless consumers or leave them at the mercy of profit hungry scams? Do we let the jobless and homeless fend for themselves because we are comfortable under our own roofs?
 
In the end, all of these economic debates come down to one thing: love. Love for our neighbor, love for ourselves, love for the planet, love for humanity. Love for those who are starving, hungry, desperate or forgotten. Love for those whose only hope of relief from suffering comes from you and me and our generosity.
 
Michael Moore’s latest movie was called, Capitalism: A Love Story. At first, the concept seemed hostile and sarcastic, yet the more I pondered its irony, the more I recognized its truth. Capitalism in its current anarchic state is all about love or rather the lack of it. Love in the Ancient Greek agape sense of the word.
 

There is a fascinating interview with Chip Heath in the latest Mckinsey Quarterly (free subscription required to access), titled: Making the emotional case for change. Heath's thesis is that building a rational, analytical case for change is not enough to make change happen. You also have to appeal to people's emotion. You have to motivate them to want to change.
 
I'm constantly amazed at how much businesses underestimate the impact of the emotional side of communications. Politics understands it. I dare you to find a politician running a campaign TV commercial that references anything remotely resembling an issue (unless it's an attack ad). Ditto for sales and marketing. But for some reason, business leaders seem to think that data alone is good enough to make their point. "If I could just show them this graph" or "they need to know the facts." As Heath explains, that alone is not enough to drive change.
 
This blog is (primarily) about external green communication, but before you can do that you have to have internal alignment. This article gives some great examples and tips for how to get that internal alignment. Take Heath's example from GE and how they got their team to start thinking in terms of ecomagination:
 

American business is getting an important lesson in civics as one of the world’s most beloved automakers dramatically and temporarily falls from grace.

Toyota Motor Company is accused of delaying its response to countless service complaints about “sticky” accelerators. Millions of cars, including the wildly popular Prius, have been recalled in an effort to avoid more accidents, injuries and potential fatalities. To date thirty four deaths in the U.S. have been attributed to the sudden surge in acceleration.

U.S. journals wrote scathing reports claiming Toyota sacrificed quality for profits. Tough questions about motives for the negligence were fired at the CEO by a U.S. congressional panel. One represenative asked, “Where’s the remorse?”

The remorse was apparent as Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, repeatedly apologized to the families of victims, “I extend my sincerest condolences to them from the bottom of my heart. I’m deeply sorry …” His sincerity was palpable. Either because he was looking at hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) of dollars in losses, or because he was losing “face” as the leader of the company his ancestor built.

Incubated by Microsoft, Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for the past five years as Telecentre.org, the new Telecentre.org Foundation will be launched on March 3 as an independent NGO. “With 200 organizational partners in 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, we are facilitating the telecommunications movement in remote rural communities around the world,” according to Basheerhamad Shadrach, Ph.D. in a private interview with me yesterday. Shadrach, Senior Program Officer at the organization, will become the CEO of the new Telecentre.org Foundation on Wednesday.

Here’s the model: Telecentres are set up in remote rural areas, where people from the community come to be trained by telecentre managers to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)—computers, for the most part—to gain valuable information, such as new and better practices for farming and agriculture, thereby increasing their incomes. Additionally, people use the internet to communicate with doctors

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