Expect a Return On your social Investment!A truly unique occurrence happened on September 15 in downtown Calgary – two worlds collided. Corporate Calgary and Charitable Calgary had breakfast together.
These two distinct, and often separate, sectors sat down over a fascinating and rewarding breakfast to discuss how they can work better together to create a more equitable world. They generated new vocabulary - no longer will the term Corporate Social Responsibility be used for those 172 corporate and nonprofit leaders in the room, rather, in its place, lies Corporate Social Opportunity.
Corporations play a large role in funding nonprofits and should expect a return on their social investment by way of results, measurement indicators and tangible outcomes. Likewise, nonprofits look to corporations for organizational funding, to create innovative, risk-taking ventures that change lives.
The breakfast was held at the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts on the meaning and importance of ‘social investing’. Representatives from local companies such as Big Rock Brewery, Westjet, RBC, Talisman Energy, and Suncor, including 30+ CEOs and Presidents, were in attendance as were a variety of Calgary-based charities.
Panelists W. Brett Wilson (Chairman, Canoe Financial), Wendy Watson-Hallowell (Director of Philanthropy Practice at The Centre for What Works) and Camille Dow Baker (Founder and CEO of Calgary’s CAWST) sparked lively conversation amongst the corporate sector and challenged for-profit organizations to treat charitable giving programs as viable investments with legitimate results and not as losses on their balance sheets.
W. Brett Wilson, the “Capitalist with a Heart” and former Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den, encouraged the energized crowd to view philanthropy as an opportunity, not an obligation. He coined the phrase: ‘Corporate Social Opportunity’ as he does not philosophically agree with the commonly used term ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. Rather, “giving is an opportunity to change our community and build relationships with clients, staff, competitors and suppliers – the entire community is engaged in the cause.”According to philanthropic advising expert Wendy Watson-Hallowell, a return on a social investment is not dissimilar than the return on an investment made in stocks or shares – the results just look different. Instead of an increased bottom line, the goal of a nonprofit is to make a difference in people’s lives. Results are not dollars or growth, however, are concrete things you can touch and see. Aligning a corporation’s investment and a nonprofit’s mission is ideally a partnership – the results can be shared – and the corporation is a contributor to those outcomes.
It really gave me so much to think about in terms of our own NGO's growth and development... - Janice Eisenhauer, Executive Director - Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan
An example of how this can be successfully achieved is seen at CAWST, the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, a nonprofit organization that has been in operation for the last 10 years, training community organizations in nearly 70 countries on how to gain access to better water and sanitation. With clear performance indicators, results have been staggering – 4.6 million people with better water and sanitation, 300 partner organizations that train using CAWST materials, and a network of over 5,000 community organizations that have been trained. In addition to these numbers, the human impact is incredible – access to clean water alleviates the cycle of poverty, empowers people to move forward with hope, and gives people the capacity to meet their own basic needs with confidence. Corporations in Calgary make up about 30% of CAWST’s funding stream and have shared in the many successes this innovate nonprofit organization has achieved.
How to achieve keeping track of a nonprofit’s impact and how a corporation should assess it came across during today’s breakfast (...) The retention of the attention span of those in attendance show the value of today’s discussion on social investing. - Bruce Fenwick, President of the Rotary Club of Calgary
To view the thought-provoking video on social investment aired at the breakfast, visit the Corporations page.
