Posted by
Chris Pinney in
With input from IBM and nine other leading companies, the Council on Foundations has just launched an ambitious initiative to revitalize and redefine the roles of corporate foundations and philanthropy. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value establishes a roadmap to help those involved in corporate philanthropy to dramatically increase its social and business value by moving away from “philanthropy as charity” and adopting a 21st century model based on leadership, innovation, and creation of sustainable value.
Our report is the result of an 18-month study that engaged corporate philanthropy practitioners and external stakeholders throughout the United States in a discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing corporate philanthropy in the 21st Century. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value addresses an environment in which society is looking to business for leadership on social issues as never before. A 2009 Waggener Edstrom Poll found that 60 percent of consumers now believe that businesses are in the best position to create positive results on social issues. By contrast, only 14 percent of respondents believed that governments can drive positive results.
Sixty-four percent of respondents to a 2010 Edelman survey stated they believe it is no longer enough for corporations to give money. Corporations must integrate good causes into their everyday business, said those surveyed. As companies work to meet this challenge through strategies such as “shared value”, philanthropy must redefine its role to support this transformation. Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value establishes goals for this transformation, identifies the challenges to be addressed, and details potential leadership opportunities.
Key initiatives include:
- Creating a new narrative for corporate philanthropy as social investment
- Developing an inclusive protocol for philanthropic investment
- Professionalizing the practice of corporate philanthropy
- Improving collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing
- Mobilizing grassroots leadership
As a global leader of corporate philanthropy’s transformation from “checkbook charity” to creating sustainable value, IBM has played an important role in the development of the Council’s agenda. IBM initiatives such as Corporate Service Corps, Smarter Cities Challenge, and Supplier Connection are powerful examples of how a commitment to service can help solve society’s challenges while creating lasting value. The Council on Foundations looks forward to continuing to work with IBM as we support and encourage the evolution of corporate philanthropy.
Download Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value.
Chris Pinney is project lead for the Corporate Philanthropy 2012 project and author of Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value. Mr. Pinney is a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and Senior Vice President of the Alliance for Business Leadership.
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When retired IBMer Jack Wilson stepped up to help create the Center for Service Leadership in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, it should have come as no surprise. Leadership is in Jack’s DNA. The former U.S. Navy Captain – with 26 years at IBM – collaborated with eight other retired IBMers and community leaders to help transform education and training for employees and managers in Hilton Head Island. The Center for Service Leadership and the Technical College of the Lowcountry (TCL) work together as a public-private partnership to strengthen the region’s hospitality-based economy.
IBM Retiree Jack Wilson: “We believe in helping to make strong service leaders who are committed to service excellence themselves, and to using their leadership strengths to inspire others, transform the culture, and build support in their organizations.”
One could say that sharing his expertise to unite the public and private sectors in service is Jack’s niche. As part of IBM’s Centennial Celebration of Service last year, Jack spearheaded the Center for Service Leadership project with the goal of making Hilton Head Island a “gold standard in service leadership.” Jack’s team of volunteers has more than 300 years of leadership experience. And it was their idea to transform Hilton Head into a center of excellence for training service leaders across all industries from aviation to health care to hospitality.
Three-Phase Plan
- The Center will launch a lecture series this summer focused on creating a culture of service excellence. Local and national service leaders will be on hand to share their best practices with program participants.
- Next, the Center will collaborate with TCL on a series of “service excellence” seminars for the college’s continuing education program.
- Finally, the Center will take an active role in helping area and relocating businesses become more competitive by training their owners, managers and employees to create a culture of service excellence.
Jack’s team has already donated hundreds of hours to the Center for Service Leadership project. Through their leadership, the team has continued IBM’s tradition of donating expertise to bring about real and sustainable change.
Lisa Lanspery is Manager with IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Responsibility communications.
Posted by
Leslie Plant in
In 2011, IBM very generously awarded the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) with a grant valued at $250,000 to develop and implement a new online tool that would improve food distribution to those in need across the province. After thousands of donated hours from IBM staff, the Smarter Needs Allocation Program was developed and launched in December 2011. Nearly 120 food banks across Ontario are now using a new online food distribution system to help put donated food onto hungry families’ plates – faster and more efficiently.
In providing this assistance, IBM chose to work on a limited number of high impact projects per year. The company’s strategic philanthropy goals focused on projects in education, workforce development, smarter cities, and in particular helping to reinforce a smarter social safety net. The emphasis was on projects where IBM could leverage its skills and technology to help the not-for-profit sector improve its business processes, run more effectively, and deliver better services at lower cost – stretching precious resources as far as possible.
The OAFB grant was borne of relationships IBM and IBMers had in their local communities. In this case, employees in Ottawa had a long relationship with some local food banks, and the conversation and idea evolved from there.
IBM provided the OAFB with the technology and expertise to create a software program that efficiently manages the coordination of donations to each of its member food banks. IBMers worked with OAFB staff to develop and deploy the Food Bank Allocation System – Canada’s first. The program features the following advantages:
- Food distribution among all Ontario food banks is faster, more efficient, and more equitable.
- Ontario now can record and track expiration and “best before” dates to improve food safety and address potential product recalls.
- A feedback loop enabling food banks to report on the quality of donations has helped OAFB decline unsuitable donations and address transportation delays.
The OAFB manages a huge flow of food to Ontarians each year – more than eight million pounds of food, including one million liters of fresh milk. Distribution was previously coordinated through phone calls, faxes and emails. But instead of relying on uncoordinated data to make food allocation decisions, the new online system accesses past account inventory information to determine where the greatest needs lie.
For example, the system will take into account the last time a particular food bank received an allocation, the expiration date of that supply, and the expiration date of a new supply that’s ready to be distributed. The system also can determine the proximity of donation sources to various food bank destinations to minimize transportation costs and environmental impact.
The program has already generated beneficial results – making food distribution in Ontario transparent, efficient and equitable, and dramatically improving the OAFB’s ability to distribute food to its members.
Leslie Plant is an External Communications Manager with IBM. A version of this article originally appeared in Hunger eNews.
Download the OAFB reports “Combating Hunger” and “Running on Empty: A Decade of Hunger in Ontario”.
IBM’s donation of 45 Young Explorer™ computer learning centers to the Early Childhood Center at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and 13 additional City University of New York (CUNY) campus child care centers is helping 3- to 7-year olds get
a leg up on math and science while their parents complete their college degrees. The CUNY grant is part of IBM’s $4.3 million initiative to provide more than 1,700 computer learning centers and teaching curricula to schools and nonprofit organizations nationwide that provide services to disadvantaged students.
Standing, L to R: CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, CUNY Director of Child Care Betty Pearsall, BMCC Board Chair Dr. Emily Anderson. Kneeling: IBM Foundation President Stanley S. Litow.
With U.S. community college graduation rates averaging only 26 percent – 28 percent for New York City – affordable, high-quality child care is essential to parents pursuing postsecondary education. Thirty percent of CUNY students work more than 20 hours per week in addition to attending college, so programs such as BMCC’s Early Childhood Center can be critical to their earning a degree. The availability of affordable child care and Young Explorer™ technology enables BMCC students to train for tomorrow’s careers while their children explore math and science concepts on the same campus.
Throughout the CUNY system, thousands of young children are having fun and learning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) concepts thanks to the bilingual (English and Spanish) software that’s part of IBM’s Young Explorer™ donation. Each Young Explorer™ is a computer housed in brightly-colored, child-friendly Little Tikes™ furniture, and is equipped with award-winning educational software. In addition, the nearly 100 teachers at CUNY’s child care centers have access to online resources through IBM’s KidSmart Early Learning website.
The collaboration between CUNY and KidSmart delivers a host of social and economic benefits. Young children get an early start developing the skills they’ll need for future success. Struggling parents get the support they need to help finish their education, participate more fully in the economy, and contribute more to their communities. And teachers get access to a leading-edge educational tool to help build and sharpen their skills. It’s a smarter approach to education to help build a smarter city.
Doris González is Senior Program Manager, IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and leads KidSmart and Reading Companion – two of IBM’s global early learning and literacy initiatives.
Related Resources:
Giving Kids the Right Start with Science and Math
Improving the Technology of Learning to Help Close the Digital Divide
Posted by
Michael A. Nutter in
On March 15, 2012, IBM selected 33 cities worldwide to receive IBM Smarter Cities Challenge (#smartercities) grants during 2012.
Launched in 2011, this three-year, 100-city US$50 million program, IBM’s single-largest philanthropic initiative, funds in-person engagements staffed by teams of top IBM experts, who study and then make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues.
With the announcement of the 2012 IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant winners — and as part of a series of Citizen IBM articles from the mayors of previous winners — Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter reflects on his city’s Smarter Cities Challenge experience as Philadelphia focuses on improving workforce development with its Digital On-Ramps initiative.
I believe Philadelphia is a great city with infinite potential. As Mayor, it’s my duty to find ways to capitalize on that potential. To do that, we have to be honest about the challenges ahead.
For Philadelphia, the major challenges center on education, literacy and workforce development. It is estimated that by 2030, approximately 600,000 Philadelphians will lack the basic skills required to compete in the global economy. Currently, two-thirds of the jobs in our city require high-literacy skills, but only one-third of our residents have the skills needed for these jobs. Unless we change this trend, many Philadelphians and their children will remain trapped in a cycle of underemployment and unemployment, working low-skill, low-wage jobs. This will have an impact on the kinds of jobs and companies that we attract to Philadelphia, limiting the potential growth for our local economy.
The lack of a skilled workforce is not unique to Philadelphia; sadly, it’s an American problem. There are nearly three million technical positions unfilled due to the skills gap. To address this problem, Philadelphia needs to transform its entire workforce development system. We need to rethink the training we provide to our job seekers. We need to implement a coordinated plan to streamline all of our workforce development organizations and programs. We need to encourage the business community to work with the City to find innovative ways to get Philadelphians working, the local economy growing, and new companies coming to the region. And, all of these changes must be cost-efficient.
After being selected as an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant winner in 2011, we welcomed a team of IBMers to the City of Philadelphia. They worked with City officials, employees and non-profit leaders to pinpoint the weaknesses in our workforce development system and create a roadmap to transform our human capital development system. In the end, our partnered effort with IBM resulted in the decision to strengthen the Digital On-Ramps initiative, a city-wide collaborative aimed at providing “anytime, anywhere” learning and workforce development.
The goal of the new Digital On-Ramps model is to be a digital learning portal: one-stop, easily accessible from anywhere and simple to navigate. This portal will connect Philadelphians to learning tools and other learners in a digital learning community. Here, we will foster collaboration and peer involvement, skills assessments, and we will provide up-to-date information on learning and training programs and resources. Over a four-year period, we aim to serve 175,000 youth and adults already enrolled in the Philadelphia learning community with the Digital On-Ramps initiative. Our goal is to create a more skilled, more prepared workforce with better employment options.
There is an old saying, “Never waste a crisis.” With the support and recommendations of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team, Philadelphia will turn the struggling residents into the skilled, 21st century-ready workforce of the future.
The Honorable Michael A. Nutter, the 98th mayor of Philadelphia, has set a course for America’s fifth largest city aimed at growing the regional economy in a sustainable manner, dramatically improving public safety and investing in education and workforce development.
Related Resources:
IBM Names Worldwide Recipients of 2012 Smarter Cities Challenge Grants
Mayor Stephen Mandel: Building a Smarter Edmonton
Smarter Cities Challenge Team: Building a Smarter Philadelphia
On March 15, 2012, IBM selected 33 cities worldwide to receive IBM Smarter Cities Challenge (#smartercities) grants during 2012.
Launched in 2011, this three-year, 100-city US$50 million program, IBM’s single-largest philanthropic initiative, funds in-person engagements staffed by teams of top IBM experts, who study and then make detailed recommendations addressing locally important urban issues.
With the announcement of the 2012 IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant winners, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel reflects on his city’s experience as a Smarter Cities Challenge grant winner.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant for 2012! I assure you that it will be an amazing experience for your city!
I may not be the most technologically savvy person, but I do recognize the remarkable power that technology has to help us do things better, faster, and smarter.
Last year, the City of Edmonton was honored as the first Canadian city to receive an
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant. Although we knew at that time we were on the right track when it comes to the innovative use of information technology, we realized we still had a lot of exciting work ahead in partnership with the IBM team.
We welcomed the Smarter Cities team to Edmonton for three intense weeks in June 2011. The IBM team immersed themselves in our culture which gave them the best opportunity to understand our city, the environment, and the people. I think this insight was a critical piece in the success of the partnership between IBM and City leaders to provide recommendations for our project: an integrated and safer transportation network through the smarter utilization of transportation data.
A huge advantage of our project was that it functioned like a pilot project. The data integration framework that was developed can be adopted across departments, making its impact City-wide. This framework will help the City to make more effective decisions and improve services for our citizens.
The experience has been absolutely phenomenal for our staff. It was exciting, challenging, and rewarding for everyone involved. It enabled us, as a City, to have greater confidence in the decisions we make each day. And I think that our citizens have seen the difference as well.
For instance, our work with IBM has helped us implement a better communication plan during the winter months which has previously been a challenge. Now we are reaching out through our website and social media, making sure Edmontonians know what to expect in real time. This has reduced frustration, increased safety, and generally made our city more accessible.
My advice would be to embrace the experience and think about the broader implications of the project you are working on. With a little creativity it can become a springboard to even greater things.
Serving Alberta’s Capital City for a third term, Mayor Stephen Mandel has led the
City of Edmonton since October 2004.
Related Resources:
IBM Names Worldwide Recipients of 2012 Smarter Cities Challenge Grants
How to Transform a City: Lessons from the Smarter Cities Challenge
Mayor Michael Nutter: The 21st Century-Ready Workforce
Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Building a Smarter Chicago
Visualization and Open Data in Helsinki
Posted by
Stanley S. Litow in
“Can we extract lessons from the for-profit world and apply them to philanthropy?” That’s the question being asked by Harvard Business School and other institutions that are training tomorrow’s global leaders. At the recent Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) Social Enterprise Symposium, I spoke with University of Maryland M.B.A. students to help them understand the evolution of philanthropy, and their roles in creating sustainable value to help build a smarter planet.
Young leaders need to understand that corporate philanthropy is an integral part of a successful and sustainable business strategy. For an organization to survive, its core values must remain consistent in a world where everything else is guaranteed to change.
So when it comes to philanthropy, the phrase “from spare change to real change” must represent a values-based commitment to social responsibility. In IBM’s case, this means deploying our best technology and talent to address critical societal issues around the world.
Watch this video to learn about how programs such as the Corporate Service Corps,
P-TECH, and World Community Grid are raising the effectiveness of public-private partnerships to new levels. Read what city mayors and volunteer experts are saying
about improving the quality of life in cities – where 70 percent of the world’s population
lives. Find out how nonprofit leaders are using private-sector management skills to deliver social services more efficiently.
In the world’s most forward-thinking academic, civic, and corporate environments, tomorrow’s leaders are learning from Day One to work together to help manage global challenges. Organizations that seek to lead will attract, motivate and retain top talent by giving them opportunities for service. Meanwhile, the world’s leading enterprises will continue to adapt to change while maintaining their core values of innovation, service,
and citizenship.
Stanley S. Litow is IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs
and President of the IBM International Foundation.
Related Resources:
Download “Corporate Social Responsibility: An Integrated Approach” (presentation)
Harvard Business Review: “IBM Corporate Citizenship Efforts ‘Enrich the Ecosystem’”
2010 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report
Many companies value the importance of skills development, education and training.
Yet, few companies have made the type of commitment that IBM has.
Instead of nibbling around the edge, IBM is working to restructure the education system to better align education, work-based learning experiences and career pathways. Through the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) model – a grades nine through 14 school where students earn both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree – IBM is preparing students to succeed in the global economy.
By joining with Skills for America’s Future – a public-private initiative connecting businesses with community colleges to train students with the skills they need to get and keep good jobs – IBM can provide the blueprint for a replicable and impactful partnership between employers and schools.
At Skills forAmerica’s Future, we know that aligning education with employer-driven training is a surefire way to build a solid workforce pipeline. Public-private partnerships between employers and educational institutions represent a strategy to accomplish this goal. Community colleges are a key partner, since these institutions currently educate 44 percent ofAmerica’s undergraduates.
But there is also the need to bridge the gap between high school, community college and employment. This gap has been a topic of concern in the education world for some time, and continues to be an important focus for improving workforce development.
It’s no wonder that IBM’s P-TECH model has created such buzz around the country.
P-TECH confers not only a high school diploma, but a two-year associate’s degree as well. Upon graduation, students will have the academic skills and workplace experience either to enter the workforce directly or pursue a four-year degree. Most notably, students graduate with specific skills that employers value, and for which they hire. For that reason alone, the grades nine through 14 model that IBM has developed is clearly an idea worth spreading.
After witnessing the success of a P-TECH school in New York, the City of Chicago has announced plans to integrate the grades nine through 14 model into select parts of its education system. With the leadership of IBM and other key business partners, students will be trained for jobs in Chicago’s growth industries – all through one program that connects high school, community college, and employment.
The expansion of IBM’s P-TECH model is not only evidence that this works, but that it’s easy to reproduce in the hands of other willing participants. That’s why this model has the potential to be replicated around the country.
To provide information about the successful elements of the model, IBM has developed a playbook that can pave the way for other companies to coalesce around this model and partner with high schools and community colleges. This playbook can help guide other companies develop strategies to bridge the gap between education and job opportunities, and invest in their communities to create similar substantial connections.
As a national network of employers and community colleges dedicated to reforming skills training and workforce development, Skills forAmerica’s Future is an ideal partner to help IBM share this information with the stakeholders who need it most.
In this economy, it is clear that we need smart, forward-thinking solutions to meet our nation’s skills challenges. IBM’s P-TECH model provides one such a solution. That’s why at Skills for America’s Future we look forward to highlighting what works and sharing the best practices with other committed employers across the country.
Karen Elzey is Director of Skills for America’s Future, a policy initiative at the Aspen Institute.
Related Resources:
Grades 9 Through 14 School Model Strengthens Education-to-Work System
Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Building a Smarter Chicago
Student Perspective: How P-TECH Inspired New Hope After Just One Semester
STEM Pathways to College and Careers Schools: A Development Guide
An organization that focuses on helping the world’s most vulnerable people occasionally finds itself in need. When ShelterBox works in the dust and debris of disasters, we are delighted to have a partner that’s as nimble and creative as we have to be. ShelterBox delivers humanitarian aid in the form of equipment and materials to provide shelter, warmth and dignity to disaster survivors around the world. That pursuit has meant sending our response teams and iconic green ShelterBoxes to 170 disaster sites in 80 countries over the last 12 years. Now, IBMers around the globe have joined the effort.
One year ago next week, the world watched in horror as a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami claimed nearly 16,000 lives and displaced nearly 500,000 people in Japan. ShelterBox teams were on the ground within 24 hours – identifying and helping the most vulnerable families in need of emergency shelter and other life-saving supplies. But while we were coordinating our response to the disaster, another team also moved to action. IBM attorneys Katherine Fick and Theresa Mohan recognized commonalities between ShelterBox and the global IBM community and reached out to help. I still remember when someone from IBM called and said, “Our team has been trying to identify a project for our Centennial Celebration of Service, and we think ShelterBox is it.” To this day, it is difficult for me to adequately express our gratitude to those who answered our calls for help via the On Demand Community. But there was more to come.
What began as a simple offer of help in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s disaster resulted in formal projects being launched with IBM employees from varying departments and locations around the world. The global legal team took on intellectual property and export regulations projects. The Rational software team shared best practices in social media and communications improvements. Others provided guidance as ShelterBox established new affiliates around the world, and have served as a ready reserve in the event that we need contacts on the ground during another disaster response. By embracing the IBM core value of dedication to client success, these IBMers inspired clients and other partners to offer in-kind support to our organization. One such collaboration helped us educate our donors about how we use their contributions.
Our IBM partners have embraced our creative and innovative approach to disaster relief, so it should come as no surprise that some IBMers have applied to become ShelterBox Response Team members. But whether you deliver the aid we provide directly, or advance our cause by working on a desk-side project, you are making a significant difference in the lives of disaster survivors. You are raising awareness, garnering resources, and helping to ensure that vulnerable families all over the world can live with dignity and independence in the days, weeks and months following a disaster.
We are deeply grateful to those IBM employees and partners who have demonstrated their compassion for disaster survivors by joining our projects. And we invite those who are not yet involved to join us. We need you!
On behalf of those we seek and serve, thank you IBM. Not only are you “building a smarter planet,” but you are also helping communities recover during their times of greatest need.
Emily Sperling is President of ShelterBox USA.
Posted by
Stanley S. Litow in
Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.
– John Dewey
In my latest op-ed in U.S. News & World Report, I write that only since the end of the Second World War has high school attendance been mandatory. Back in 1945, we understood that while college could be important, finishing high school wasn’t optional – it was essential. But in 2012, the stakes and requirements are much higher. To gain access to 21st Century careers, workers must be significantly better educated than in generations past. And to prepare our children to participate in the global economy, our schools must do a better job of connecting education to employment.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has just announced his city’s intention to do just that. Following the Roadmap for Career and Technical Education developed in collaboration with an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team — and working out of IBM’s playbook, the STEM Pathways to College and Careers School Guide — Chicago plans to open five grades 9 through 14 schools this fall. Each school will be a public-private partnership among the Chicago Public Schools, the City Colleges of Chicago, and a corporate sponsor. Their mission: to connect education to jobs.
Read my full article in U.S. News & World Report. Then follow the links below to read a variety of perspectives on how civic leaders, educators, parents, students and private industry are working together to improve American public education.
Related Resources:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Building a Smarter Chicago
U.S. News & World Report: Grades 9 Through 14 School Model Strengthens Education-to-Work System
Building the Pipeline to Tomorrow’s Jobs: Smarter Cities Challenge, Chicago
Smarter Cities Challenge, Chicago: Contributing Expertise to Build Sustainable Value
Student Perspective: How P-TECH Inspired New Hope After Just One Semester
Student Perspective: Switching to a Grades 9-14 School
Download the “STEM Pathways to College and Careers Schools: A Development Guide” playbook
Download the Grades 9-14 Chicago and IBM School Partnership fact sheet
