Professionalizing Pro Bono Consulting
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?
-
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (http://www.geofunders.org/home.aspx)
- Council
on Foundations (http://www.cof.org/)
-
Grantmakers for Education (http://www.edfunders.org/)
-
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (http://www.gcyf.org/)
-
Grantmakers in Aging (http://www.giaging.org/)
- Environmental Grantmakers Association (http://www.ega.org/)
