Sophisticated Philanthropy: The New Face of Corporate Giving

Julie Whittaker looks at new trends in Corporate Giving, and shows how partnerships can brave the storm of the recession.

Corporate philanthropy is shifting from charity giving to a pursuit of strategic partnerships.   Approaches to giving are changing alongside the expectations for and the nature of the return for this social investment. Accordingly, the need for mutual understanding and new ways of working, between the business and the citizen sectors has become more urgent.

Corporate philanthropy is now more aligned with business goals and more strategic.  Traditional cheque-book handover relationships have fallen out of fashion. The growth in more transactional forms of cooperation, such as cause-related marketing, is also slowing down. Philanthropy is becoming more sophisticated, with corporations responding to the cultural, ideological and institutional norms which define their stakeholders in different parts of the world.

Cross-sector partnerships, in which the relationship between the corporation and citizen sector organisation itself becomes the strategic asset, are now the preferred means of modern corporate benevolence. Partnerships leverage the complementary strengths of both parties – their different knowledge, brands, motivations, employees, relationship networks and finances – to create mutual economic and social benefit. Successful partnerships involve the careful alignment of interests, values and strategies, as well as the development of deep personal relationships across organisations.

The survival of this partnership model in the midst of the global financial crisis is testament to its viability. Indeed, partnerships speak to the key concerns of companies facing economic turbulence – customer retention, staff engagement and new growth.

For example, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), a leading pharmaceutical company, has established a global partnership with Ashoka, including its UK office. Making More Health, as the partnership is titled, aims to improve health around the world, by providing access to and affordability of innovative health programmes. The Partnership supports fifty selected social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) while searching even wider for healthcare solutions through two on-line global competitions.   This two-pronged approach enables the Partnership to uncover innovations that are “battle tested” and proven. It also provides a focus for gathering the collective knowledge and experience of these social entrepreneurs, and deploying those successfully in other needy parts of the world.

The growth and development opportunities for BI’s own business are significant, especially as many talented BI employees are able to engage directly in the projects, and develop important qualities and experience as a result. Making More Health is one of the building blocks in BI’s strategy to lead on the delivery of new solutions to continually growing healthcare issues. It reflects the company’s values, its history and the collective commitment of its management and people, and in doing so is a perfect example of the brave new world of corporate giving.

Julie Whittaker is a Communications Consultant at Ashoka UK, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs.