Aaron Hurst: March 2008 Archives
By Aaron Hurst on
March 31, 2008 12:19 PM
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Like early corporate philanthropy,
pro bono services offered by the leading consulting firms often appear to be
more opportunistic than strategic. They are driven by requests and
partner interests. As a result, it is hard to evaluate their collective
impact or to tell a compelling story about the pro bono work being done across
the country.
In the last 10 years, corporate
philanthropy programs have professionalized their efforts to be more focused on
intentional impact. They have identified key issues that are aligned with
their interests and have started making larger grants that look to connect them
deeply with the issue and to position the company as a leader.
These companies have further
professionalized these efforts by becoming active members of broader foundation
coalitions. If they are strategically investing in education, they
are partnering with other foundations across the country making similar
investments to increase the effectiveness of their efforts (and those of their
peers).
As consulting firms increase
their investment in pro bono in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars it
is time for us to follow the lead of strategic corporate philanthropy. To
increase impact, these firms should be at the foundation tables that are building
collective strategies for approaching core issues like education and the
environment. This would not only help to focus the pro bono investments of
professional services firms, but could perhaps more importantly bring a fresh
perspective to these groups of grantmakers.
How do we get associations like the
ones below to invite firms to the table to talk about pro bono as a form of
grantmaking?
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Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (http://www.geofunders.org/home.aspx)
- Council
on Foundations (http://www.cof.org/)
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Grantmakers for Education (http://www.edfunders.org/)
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Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (http://www.gcyf.org/)
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Grantmakers in Aging (http://www.giaging.org/)
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Environmental Grantmakers Association (http://www.ega.org/)
By Aaron Hurst on
March 18, 2008 2:56 PM
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What is the ideal volunteer opportunity for those that don't have the skills to do most traditional pro bono work (marketing, IT, HR, legal, etc.) but work at companies and don't want to do hands on volunteering? These are the majority of employees at companies (90%+). These are the front line of most businesses (store clerks, bank tellers, etc.).
This has been a hot topic of discussion with many of our in-house corporate partners. They love the idea of pro bono, but they are measured based on the percentage of employees engaged and pro bono as it is defined now engages only a thin sliver of their population.
I would love to be able to find a way to leverage this bulk of corporate America but don't see an obvious solution. It may evolve over time as the traditional pro bono work occurs and HQ employees innovate when they see opportunities. This is the most likely scenario.
Does anyone have an insight into how to think about this opportunity? What could a nonprofit do to leverage the skills of front line corporate employees? What are their transferable skills?
By Aaron Hurst on
March 7, 2008 5:08 PM
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It is
now official: With the support of The Case Foundation, Meyer Foundation, and
CityBridge Foundation, Taproot Foundation has kicked-off our Service Grant
Program in Greater Washington. When all heads were counted, we had approximately
44 attendees from the public, private, and governmental sectors. We were so
pleased to have the opportunity to communicate the impact our Service Grant
model is having on the communities we currently serve (San Francisco Bay Area,
Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and NYC), to celebrate the people we are grateful to
for supporting our expansion into Greater Washington, and to share some
highlights from our participation in the Summit on Corporate Volunteerism
convened by The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.
Michael Smith, Director, Social Investment, at The Case Foundation, served as the Master of
Ceremonies, with help from co-hosts Annie Linehan of CityBridge Foundation and Rick Moyers of Meyer Foundation. The program also included
presentations by Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Greater DC Cares, who
discussed landscape and pro bono in DC, and Evan Hochberg, National Director,
Community Engagement, Deloitte Services, who did a fantastic job presenting on
Taproot's potential impact on the region and why Taproot is important for the
private sector.
Metro International,
one of our New York City grantees, sent their ED Tracy Snyder down to DC to
offer a first hand account of the Taproot model from an organization's
perspective, which succeeded at pumping up all future grantees in the audience.
Lynsey Wood Jeffries, Deputy Director of Higher Achievement, confessed,
"Although I entered the event somewhat skeptical about the quality of pro-bono
consulting, Taproot's structure is very impressive. Washington's nonprofits,
and by extension our communities, will be well-served by your expansion here."
With nearly 200 local business professionals eager to volunteer their skills and
expertise (as of 11/07!), Taproot is poised to award 5 Service Grants in our
first grant round (March '08), and is thrilled to be able to help Greater
Washington's high-performing nonprofit organizations build their capacity to be
better able to deliver on their mission.
By Aaron Hurst on
March 4, 2008 9:37 AM
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Fetelli, a Rockford, IL-based ad and
design firm, just announced that of the 31 nonprofits that applied to win
$50,000 in pro bono services, they selected the Burpee Museum of Natural History
(also based in Rockford). This is part of a new trend in the pro bono field
where consulting and design firms strategically structure their pro bono efforts
to optimize PR value and to enable them to get a wide range of project
options.
This is a really smart way for a
firm to drive PR. There is the buzz that is created when they announce the call
for entries. The announcement quickly circulates in the nonprofit community and
is visible to peer firms. The announcement can also be sent to the firm's
clients for them to forward to the nonprofits they care about, which helps retain
and grow accounts.
The firm then gets dozens of entries
and can strategically identify the project that will be most engaging for
employees, create local visibility and make the greatest impact. Finally, it
creates a sense of value on the end of the award winner. The selected nonprofit
knows that it was selected from a pool of 31 nonprofits so they are both
flattered (this can be leveraged to get their staff, board and funders excited) and
feel a sense of responsibility to be a good client. This addresses one of the
most common issues with nonprofit work - pro bono clients that are not invested
because the work is free. The Burpee Museum of Natural History is likely going
to take this project very seriously and be a great
client.
Now the down side - and it is
significant. Fetelli has 31 nonprofits complete a proposal or entry. I have
not seen the proposal format, but if it is like most proposals, it likely
required the nonprofit to invest two days to develop (thinking, internal
alignment and writing). That is 62 days of nonprofit time invested. I did a
quick back of the envelop calculation and estimated that it costs nonprofits
roughly $35,000 to develop all those entries. So, the net value of the grant
is $15,000 ($50,000 - $35,000). And while Burpee is elated, 30 other nonprofits
now associate the Fetelli brand with disappointment and a wasted investment of
time.
At the end of the day, $15,000 in
pro bono value is still more than $0. I would, however, challenge Fetelli and
similar firms to think about how to increase the "impact" margin on these types
of programs.
You can read about Burpee and
Fetelli in the Rockford Register Star:
http://www.rrstar.com/homepage/x1637128843
