Pro Bono Junkie's Blog

THE BUSINESS VALUE OF PRO BONO PROGRAMS - INTRODUCED IN TAPROOT'S LATEST RESOURCE!

By Tal Kapulnik on January 17, 2012 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We knew it. Some of you knew it. And now we are officially introducing the business values of pro bono programs in Taproot's most recent resource titled "Demonstrating the Business Value of Pro Bono Programs".

This new resource can help you understand the strategic value that pro bono can bring back to your business. We start by summarizing business benefits created by pro bono service, and then dive into each business element providing suggested metrics for tracking programs.

Most notably, we include best practices and great case studies from companies that have realized the business opportunities from investing in pro bono programs as a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. The case studies demonstrate how pro bono is an impactful tool for enhancing human resources, innovation and company reputation. Here are a few motivating quotes that we found inspiring:

"IBM Corporate Service Corps is a triple benefit program producing quantifiable returns for the individual, for the community and for the company measured in its effect on recruitment and retention of top talent, skill enhancement in cultural adaptability and teaming, brand value, the opening of business opportunities in emerging markets and enhanced media coverage"
- Stanley S. Litow, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM

 "It's not an exaggeration to say that many of our PULSE Volunteers return to GSK affirming that their PULSE assignment was a  life-changing experience... New recruits tell us it is the No.1 reason why they joined GSK... Our volunteers return with a greater focus on the patient; they return as leaders with greater passion, energy, confidence, creativity, gratitude and practical knowledge of how to do more with less." 
- Ahsiya Posner Mencin, Director, PULSE Volunteer Partnership, GlaxoSmithKline

"As well as building a healthy business environment in the long term, the benefits can be more immediate. It helps communicate what a company stands for; it helps attract, develop and retain talent; and it helps us showcase our values and talents in the marketplace".
- Barry Salzberg, CEO Deloitte LLP

We would like to thank the people who helped turn research and knowledge into a resource that can be shared. President of Pro Bono Lab, Yoann Kassi-Vivier and Pro Bono Consultant Dima Mostovoy, generously donated their time. We would also like to thank the following companies for contributing to the whitepaper: American Express, AT&T, Deloitte, GE, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Liquidnet, Microsoft, Nielsen, Riggs Advertising Partner, Salesforce, Timberland, The Nerdery, UPS and Wells Fargo.

Not sure how your pro bono program benefits your company? Want to learn how to measure the business value of your program? Learn more by reading the full whitepaper.

We will be posting a series of blog posts, each focused on a case study and specific business benefit and we are sure you will be inspired! Stay tuned to future updates from Taproot's Advisory Services.

We are happy to get your feedback or questions at advisory@taprootfoundation.org. 

Pro Bono Programs and Fostering Innovation

By Tal Kapulnik on January 17, 2012 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pro bono programs provide a great opportunity for Corporate Social Responsibility strategies that offer shared value to both the business and the community. Pro bono can serve the business by fostering an innovative organizational culture, supporting human resources and professional development and improving the company's reputation.

This blog post is the first in a series based on "Demonstrating the Business value of Pro Bono Service", a whitepaper which identifies business benefits of pro bono and spotlights corporate best practices. In this issue, we are focusing on innovation, exploring the way that IBM has benefited by creating two pro bono programs which enhanced creativity and innovation within the company and among employees.  

A Climate of Innovation

Creativity and entrepreneurialism have become necessary elements in the business world. Fortunately, creating pro bono programs can foster the desired climate of innovation, helping to develop new or improved products and allowing the company to expand customer scope or reach beyond its existing markets. By exposing employees to a new environment and type of clients, volunteers are required to find creative solutions which bring fresh new perspectives into the work environment. As employees face today's social challenges, they also discover a new sector that was not part of the company's market.

IBM's community involvement strategy, which includes the Corporate Service Corps (CSC), a global leadership development program, and Trailblazer Grants, a team-based technology offering for nonprofits, has increased innovation and growth within the company. Employees are motivated to be creative and see pro bono engagement as an opportunity to "learn new ideas, methods, and perspective [they] cannot imagine at the moment," as highlighted by a CSC participant. Employees bring back knowledge to the company, develop professionally and find ways to apply new skills to serve IBM clients better.

New or Improved Products

Intellectual property at IBM was significantly enhanced by pro bono. IBM's recent work in the areas of voice recognition, virtualization, data visualization, data analytics, and cloud computing have all been embedded in products and services. And what else do these all have in common? These were all initially conceived during pro bono community engagements and have been integrated into the company's commercial offerings. To date, over a dozen new patents have been applied as a result of the company's community engagement and pro bono work.

New Market or Enhanced Market Penetration

IBM's community programs have helped the company broaden its geographic scope by penetrating into new markets in multiple continents, serving countries as diverse as Ghana, Romania, and Indonesia. By supporting the development of small and medium enterprises across the globe, Corporate Service Corps (CSC) members contribute to growing IBM's knowledge of the socio-economic conditions and business practices in emerging markets.

Like IBM, companies can enjoy business and employee growth by embracing the benefits of pro bono programs. When designing a program, ask yourself: How do your volunteer programs bring value back to the business?

For more inspiration from other companies, download the full whitepaper. 

Why Are Lawyers The Only Ones Who Get To Do Pro Bono Work?

By Aaron Hurst on January 11, 2012 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TAPROOT FELLOWS SEE NYC SERVICE GRANTS IN ACTION

By Julie Cornell on January 10, 2012 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Late last year, my fellow Taproot fellows and I went on a quest around New York City to discover and photograph nonprofit logos and marketing materials created via Taproot's Service Grant Programs. Our group first trekked out to Long Island City to meet with the Long Island City Partnership, then backtracked across the East River and up to East Harlem to the Union Settlement Association. Finally, we landed in Midtown to visit the offices of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. Although involved in vastly divergent service areas, these nonprofits do have one thing in common: Taproot's logo development service grant has helped each of them to better communicate their mission, and vision to the constituents whom they serve.

At each location, we immediately noticed each nonprofit's new logo proudly displayed outside the building or in their front lobby. I was particularly struck by the warm welcome we received at each office we visited and the willingness of the staff to take time out of their day to speak with us. We got the inside scoop on the logo development projects and the positive impact they have had on the organizations: "We are more visible in the community...we have raised our level of professionalism in the public's eyes...we are more unified internally so that we can better present ourselves to the people we serve." These were just some of the impact statements we heard during our visits.

Personally, it was exciting and enlightening to visit parts of the city that were previously unknown to me. And, seeing the great work in which these nonprofits are involved was particularly inspiring. Like many nonprofits, these organizations are doing the hard work necessary to make a positive impact in their communities: to bring new businesses into the community and grow the local economy; to provide opportunities and services to children and the elderly; and to ensure that diversity is cultivated and respected in the classroom, the office, and the emergency room. I look forward to meeting many other nonprofits with whom Taproot has had the privilege to work.

 Julie Cornell is a Product Development Fellow here at the Taproot Foundation, pictured above with Advisory Services Fellow Tal Kapulnik, New York Programs Fellow Nicole Stratton & former External Affairs Fellow Joy Ni.

11 HEADLINES FROM 2011

By Aaron Hurst on December 23, 2011 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

1.     Our pro bono consultants provided our 1 millionth hour of consulting to local nonprofits - putting beyond any doubt the potential of pro bono to be scalable, reliable and high quality resource for the nonprofit sector.

2.      We embraced social media with a bear hug with new regular posts on a wide range of sites (blogging on HuffPo, SSIR, Mobolize.org, Design Observer & more), over 5,000 twitter followers and a major presence on LinkedIn.  

3.     We helped re-launch Billion + Change (a campaign we initiated under the last administration) which recorded the $1 billion in pro bono pledges by companies this fall.

4.      Research conducting with BoardSource late in the year with support from Chevron changes how we all think about the role of boards in resource generation.

5.     We marked the 10th anniversary of our launch at the Hang Art Gallery in San Francisco. 

6.     We signed a book deal with Jossey-Bass for the 2012 release of "Powered by Pro Bono: a nonprofit's guide to scope, secure and manage pro bono resources."

7.      Our advisory services team provided consulting to 19 companies to help them build and scale their pro bono programs.

8.     In partnership with California Volunteers, we developed a state of the art curriculum for Volunteer Centers to use to help nonprofits become Service Enterprises.

9.      Chan Suh, Kiko Washington, Gari Ann Douglass, Roberto Orci and Tracy Barba joined the Taproot Foundation board.  

10.  We made major strides in becoming a Service Enterprise ourselves - using volunteers to help us build and sustain Taproot and not just our nonprofit partners.

11.   And perhaps most importantly, added some amazing new roots to our turnip patch: 

Rob Acton, Kyson Bunthuwong, Ann Burroughs, Mini Datta, Arianne Edmonds, Kate Effland, Martha Grant, Mary Hankey, Beth Houle, Rachel Kim, Jennifer Pawlowski, Pamela Saelieb, Brittany Scholz, Bob Scott, Eileen Yang

BAIN & COMPANY IMPACTS EDUCATION THROUGH TARGETED PRO BONO AND OTHER SUPPORT

By Tal Kapulnik on December 14, 2011 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bain will be partnering with Bridgespan to address the education crisis in the US and beyond. With over 40 education-focused pro bono engagements in the past three years, Bain is driving deep impact on a signature issue area. Noteworthy projects include:

►     Bain Employees in Chicago founded a charter school and provided an array of volunteer and financial support to Rowe Elementary School. Pro bono support included studying Charter School best practices and preparing the initial business plan that launched the school.

        READ MORE ABOUT ROWE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ►

►     A founding thought partner of City Year since 1988, Bain was instrumental in the creation of City Year New York. Bain consultants have volunteered their time, not only in the playgrounds and classrooms of New York City at their annual service day, but also by helping formulating City Year's five year strategic growth plan--helping them grow from 50 corps members in 2003 to 254 corps members in 2011.

        WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT THE CITY YEAR PARTNERSHIP ►

►     Bain helped develop the strategy and business plan for launching StudentsFirst, the new organization founded by Michelle Rhee, a renowned public figure in the US education system. This in-depth plan has helped guide the initial launch and early success of the organization. StudentsFirst is leading a national movement to advocate for common sense reforms that accelerate student achievement.

        READ MORE ABOUT THE WORK WITH STUDENTSFIRST ►

ABOUT BAIN & COMPANY'S SOCIAL IMPACT PROGRAM

Bain & Company, a leading global business consulting firm, has a diverse and evolving social impact program with impressive global reach. Over the past year, 60% of Bain employees participated in social impact activities globally - and together they impacted nearly 500 organizations through pro bono work and robust volunteer programs.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BAIN'S SOCIAL IMPACT ►

TEN YEARS AGO A ROOT VEGETABLE WAS BORN

By Aaron Hurst on December 9, 2011 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AUDIO: WHY NONPROFITS INCREASINGLY COMPETE WITH GOOGLE FOR TALENT

By Martha Grant on December 6, 2011 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In our webcast on November 16th, Taproot President Aaron Hurst tackled the affects of unemployment and the increasingly competitive talent market on the nonprofit sector, with The Economist's US Business Editor Matthew Bishop.  And together, they looked to the future, discussing the future of corporate philanthropy, pro bono and tactics nonprofits can adopt to better succeed.  Now, we're happy to offer the audio to everyone who missed it - or heard it and want to listen again: 

AN INTERVIEW WITH AARON HURST, SOCIAL INNOVATOR

By Laura Weiss on November 30, 2011 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Investing in innovation to improve current services or to envision new ones requires a great leap of faith because there is no certainty in the outcome. Yet innovation is critical to keeping programs relevant to their target audience, and viable to the organizations that produce them.  I sat down with our Founder and CEO, Aaron Hurst, who has developed a strong appreciation for innovation's importance in keeping things fresh as we reach our ten-year milestone here at Taproot. Because we have been a pioneer in the delivery of capacity building services to nonprofit organizations, the desire to expand our own capacity as an innovator is a natural one. Aaron and I had a recent conversation about thinking big, taking small steps, and making movies.

Laura Weiss: I've always believed that nonprofits are inherently innovative organizations by virtue of how they got formed in the first place. In what ways do you think they can embrace creativity and innovation on a more regular basis? 

Aaron Hurst: If you look at the stages of evolution of an organization I think your insight is right - early stage organizations, for profit or nonprofit, they're doing a lot of experimentation and they also don't have a large infrastructure so changes are not that difficult to make and failure is not so devastating - you don't have people's jobs on the line you don't have expectations out there, it's just a much easier environment in which to tinker and experiment and try new things. 

As you get bigger and bigger two different things happen - one is that you have more and more at stake every time you want to make a change and you have people's livelihoods and expectations riding on your success. The other is the limits of nonprofit capitalization.  They're often staffed so thinly that not only do they not have the resources to implement a brave new wonderful innovation but their staff is working so tirelessly and so hard to keep things going that they don't have the bandwidth to even pause and ask questions. 

LW: I recently heard a Foundation director say that "innovation is not about new, it's about better.  We don't need any more 'new'.  We need to know which of the new are 'better'." Would you agree?

AH: I think there's a lot of opportunity to look beyond radical change and consider the potential for iterative change.  Given their limited resources, a lot of nonprofits could be focused on refining and improving upon their core initial insight that haven't fully realized their potential yet. So there's tremendous opportunity there.  

Another great opportunity for spurring change is that line that Dr. Phil has that great line he asks people when they're sticking to their old patterns: "how's that working for you?"  People suddenly pause and reflect on what's really at stake. I find this to be really powerful with nonprofits because very few feel that they are making the change they ultimately want to make and if you remove the risk of status quo, and say that status quo isn't so critical to protect, they can start to strive for that bigger answer.

LW: Clearly innovation is about change, and change requires strong leadership.  There was a really interesting article in the NYT that contrasted Apple and Google's decision-making culture around innovation - visionary vs. by committee.  While nonprofit founders get their organizations off the ground by being visionary, this singular model of leadership tends to give way over time to one that is more consensus driven.  What are your insights there? 

AH: There's a challenge as a founder and innovator to know when to be directive and when to just let people do their jobs.  I think a lot of times it can be incredibly disruptive to constantly be looking at change, looking at new ways of doing things and looking at new ideas when there's so much work that just needs to get done. This is something that I've really wrestled with - when to bring that innovation voice to a discussion and when to just help clear the way so you can get your job done.

Ideally everyone in the organization is constantly questioning what they're doing; thinking about how they're doing stuff so that innovation never stops. But there's also a realism that not all of your ideas can be executed which actually leads to frustration if expectations aren't capped right - you build an appetite for change that's not realistic.

LW: So getting skilled at communications and collaboration is just as important as having the vision.

AH: Right. When I was about eight or nine my grandparents got one of the first Betamax video cameras.  And I had a vision for a horror movie that I wanted to film with them all acting in it.  I had it all in my head, I knew how I wanted it to be, so I turned the camera on and just assumed they knew what I wanted, that they just 'got it', and could just act it out.  I hadn't given them a script, I just sort of said in general "this is the movie - just do it". But they didn't understand what I wanted so you see me on film screaming and being incredibly frustrated and angry because they didn't understand what the vision was for the film that I was trying to create.

This has been a constant riddle for me - having a vision but continuing to learn how to articulate that vision to the teams around me who are there to help make it possible to build that quality movie, if you will. To me that's part of what having a VP of Service Innovation is all about - being able to connect vision to reality and to do it not as a single person but as an organization and that's part of a community.

LW: On that topic - not many nonprofits have a Vice President of Service Innovation. What were you thinking when you hired me?

AH: In general, there are a lot of sacred cows in our field; a lot of things that are assumed to have to be a certain way.  As I've looked at other organizations and what's caused them to plateau after their initial innovation it's that they started drinking way too much of their own Kool-Aid and they didn't have internal agitators that were really charged with questioning what we do and how to grow from there. And I had a great fear that we would rest on our laurels and have a fear of change, so bringing in someone who's a proven innovator, an "innovation sherpa", who could help us build that muscle to not accept the status quo to me was critical to the lifeblood of our organization.

LW: Talk a bit about the innovation process that Taproot's been using to evolve its programs - in your comfort zone or out?

AH: We've been asking bigger questions around what impact our programs are really having and how we want to change what our role is in the pro bono marketplace. Specifically, how do we enable corporations to be innovative in the creation of pro bono programs, and how do we enable nonprofits to secure scope and manage these pro bono resources on their own?

That whole exploration has really opened up so many questions for me. I'm usually someone who likes to jump to conclusions way too quickly and what I've really loved about this process is that it's slowed things down in a good way. At the end you might say "yeah, we could have come to that same conclusion in an hour" but the reality is that to get to that kind of simplicity takes patience and a methodology to allow things to bubble up.

That's one of the things I've really appreciated, that we haven't forced a quick answer. Also, being able to look at our program from the human, business, and technical side and weighing all of those perspectives instead of just being focused on one or two independently. In the past we've tended to let technology and our business model drive too much of what we're doing; having the human-centered piece throughout the whole has made it much more likely that we'll build something that will achieve breakthrough for our mission. 

LW: What's been your biggest learning from that process so far?  Any surprises?

AH: One of the things that we did in that process that I loved - and I think it's something that every nonprofit and company should do - was we looked back at our original program and we documented every assumption we thought we had made in its original design. Now, ten years later, we asked how many of these assumptions are actually still true. From an innovation point of view it's been so liberating because it's made us realize that it's ok to make assumptions that don't end up being true. There are very few sacred cows and there's so much more room to change than you might think.  

LW: We're coming up on Taproot's ten year anniversary.  Where do you imagine Taproot will be in another ten years?

AH: What I'm really interested in is the intersection of pro bono and innovation and looking at how we can harness tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars of pro bono - not just to help individual nonprofits but to help address major social issues or enable broader sets of nonprofits be able to experience the kinds of innovation that we've been lucky enough to pursue.  I'd like to look at challenges that have plagued nonprofits for a long time and turn them on their heads to see if we can make progress in ways we haven't been able to in the past. So that's what I would hope for in ten years - that we'll have built strong muscle in how to innovate and find solutions and at the same time have really built an army of people doing pro bono that can help make that possible.

WHY NONPROFITS INCREASINGLY COMPETE WITH GOOGLE FOR TALENT

By Aaron Hurst on November 18, 2011 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was honored to be joined by Matthew Bishop of The Economist this week for our webcast titled 'Why Nonprofits Increasingly Compete with Google for Talent.' A fascinating conversation, I split it into three parts: Unemployment, The Talent War, and A New Hope, tracing the themes I'd found in Matthew's articles (especially The Gross Mismatch) and two fantastic books - Philanthrocapitalism and his latest, The Road From Ruin.  The session was introduced by Caroline Barlerin, our long time partner at HP  - we were so grateful to hear her brief thoughts on the talent gap and the importance of pro bono in meeting society's needs. 

A video of this talk will be posted December 1^st.

While you'll be able to watch the key sections of this conversation in full shortly, I did want to touch on some of the major takeaways I had during our session.  The first - high unemployment rates and competition co-exist - creating a highly consequential dynamic.  As Matthew Bishop noted as well, you have young adults who simply aren't getting experience in the workforce, terrifying as they are the future of our economy.  This situation could have serious consequences - stunting the growth of the next generation of society's leaders.At the same time, it goes without saying that the effect of unemployment means a great strain on the resources of the nonprofit sector.  

So how do we meet society's needs?  This led us to act two: the Talent War.  I proposed it was getting more and more difficult to get the right people on the bus for nonprofits.  Bishop noted, however, that there are many different ways to seek out the talent you need to meet that strain, from the high impact philanthropy he has discussed in his book Philanthrocapitalism to tapping into the prestige of working to solve society's toughest problems.  I pushed back on this, as I heard in many discussions this week that our sector's leaders are still finding it harder and harder to recruit the top talent we need, especially when it comes to the technology professionals we require in order to scale our efforts.  At the same time, as I noted in my post, It's Harder to Run a Nonprofit than a Company this week on Huffington Post, nonprofit leaders truly ought to be held in the highest regard - perhaps if we lauded nonprofit leaders more, we would have fewer challenges finding that talent?

Finally, we closed with Act Three: A New Hope.  Matthew Bishop brought to the table his hopes for the future and how we can start to meet the challenges our society will face.  I proposed that pro bono is a valuable way both for corporations to attract and retain talent and a way for nonprofits to meet their needs, which he agreed was compelling.  This part of the discussion you'll want to stay tuned for - it's worth listening in full.

Were you able to join us for the webcast? What are your thoughts?