A Daily Dose of Inspired Philanthropy

Betty Londergan is a woman on a mission.

Since the start of 2010, Betty has embarked on a journey of what I can only describe as “Inspired Philanthropy”.

But before I dive into Betty’s story – let me ask you this:

How many times a day do you stop and think about the people around you and their personal stories?

The woman sitting next to you on the bus, the man in the cubicle down the hall, or the little kids playing on the basketball court - How many times do you stop to think: “Who are they?” or “Where did they come from?” And, perhaps most importantly, “Do they need my help?”

As we get caught up in the day-to-day drudgery of life (errands, work, family, etc), it’s easy to stay focused on ourselves and what we need or want.

I’m just as “guilty” of this as anyone; between school, my job search, and being a wife, daughter and friend, my plate is pretty full these days. Not to mention the fact that my wallet is pretty tight too.

Given both these financial and time constraints, when it comes to my own personal charitable giving, I often fall back on old habits. I have my list of go-to organizations and, when I find myself in a giving mood, I just direct my donations to them.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t often consider which new or innovative ideas and organizations are deserving of my donations – in large part, I think, because I’m just too darned busy to search!

Enter Betty Londergan, whose 2010 resolution is “365 days of putting my money where my mouth is”.

Betty’s blog, What Gives 365, is a daily record of her journey in philanthropy. For 365 days Betty has pledged to give $100 a day to people and organizations doing great work.

How does Betty choose where to give? In her own words:

In super general terms, I’m going to give to places that I have a personal connection with [and] I’ll tell you the story behind my gift in the hopes that you might be moved to support the cause, too. I will try to choose organizations that will use the money effectively and wisely (I’m checking organizations out with Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy).

Beyond that, my yardstick is to give money to alleviate things that make me want to cry; things that make me feel ferociously protective; things that make me want to say Amen; and things that just make me feel good.

In essence, Betty has decided to pay attention to the everyday people and stories that move her.

I recently signed up for her RSS feed (and I encourage you to do the same) – which means that every day I get a short, sweet, and inevitably inspiring story of amazing people doing incredible work.

Work that I would have never known about had Betty not stopped to take some time, connect with others, and hear their stories.

In the end I think philanthropy is about connecting with the people, animals, environments and organizations around us – and supporting what moves us.

Unlike Betty, we might not all be able to give $100 a day. But what if we gave $50 a day, or $10, or even $1? Our smaller gifts might not have the impact that Betty’s do, but we’d still be reconnecting with our community and supporting causes that are meaningful to us.

Now that’s what I'd call Inspired Philanthropy.

Want a CSR Job? Read This First.

With just over two months left until I graduate from business school, I’ve started to reflect on what I’ve accomplished over the last two years. Without a doubt, the most fulfilling experiences of my MBA program have been the chances I’ve had to engage in real-world consulting projects for corporate and nonprofit clients.

In the last four semesters, I’ve worked on some pretty terrific marketing and corporate social responsibility projects - including brand audits, marketing research plans, stakeholder communications strategies, and social media tactics.

But perhaps my most satisfying consulting project was a sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement plan for Praxair, a $9B Fortune 300 industrial gas manufacturer in Danbury, CT. I’ve talked about this project in past posts, and I was thrilled to see that Boston University recently issued a press release about this engagement (including a quote from yours truly!).

These consulting projects have been the most rewarding part of my MBA, but they’ve also been the most challenging and time-consuming. In the end, though, I’ve signed up for all of them without hesitation – in large part because I (and many of my fellow MBA classmates) believed they’d serve as proof of our experience to potential employers come recruiting season.

Interestingly, last week The Wall Street Journal published an article about companies partnering with business schools to create these sorts of CSR projects for students. The article starts out positively, saying urgent “social concerns” are leading more and more companies to partner with business schools to provide real-world education and training to students (aka: potential employees).

Unfortunately the story takes on a different tone just a few sentences later:

The effort [to create real-world CSR consulting projects] is being met with both gratitude and skepticism from business schools, which say that despite the emphasis on integrating these hot-button topics into the curriculum, it's business as usual at recruiting time. Few hiring managers, they say, ask students about corporate-responsibility training or indicate it's a priority.

That’s right – according to the article, these CSR projects may be happening more frequently on business school campuses, but that doesn’t mean they’re turning into more CSR jobs for MBA graduates after school.

The article drills home the point even further, saying that engaging students in these kinds of projects “doesn't translate into hiring socially responsible M.B.As, an issue that “points to a disconnect on part of the companies: There's enthusiasm in the classroom for imparting corporate responsibility and sustainability concepts, but hiring managers attending campus recruiting sessions say it's rarely something they quiz candidates about.”

In the end it seems that MBA grads looking for CSR jobs can easily find themselves between that proverbial rock and a hard place – on the one hand, they’re receiving extraordinary real-world training for future sustainability positions; yet on the other, there’s often no opportunity to continue this work once they finish business school.

Another related and interesting study that just came out also reinforced this point:

Ellen Weinreb from WeinrebGroup analyzed six years of CSR job postings and drew conclusions about the availability of jobs and overall trends in CSR recruiting. Her findings point to an interesting conclusion for recent MBA grads wanting to get into CSR (which, by the way, is the same conclusion drawn by the Wall Street Journal article):

If you want to work in CSR, get functional experience first.

Ellen’s study shows an increase over time in VP and Director-level CSR jobs – which is great news for people already working in CSR but not so great for MBA grads just trying to jump in.

Since those high-level CSR jobs are most likely out of reach for newly-minted MBAs, Ellen suggests job seekers embed themselves in a corporate function (marketing, finance, strategy etc), learn the business, and then transition internally to a CSR role.

When you think about it, this advice makes sense; after all, to be effective in sustainability, you’ve got to first understand the business you’re in.

For my part, it turns out that I’ve actually heard this advice many, many times – and given the frequency with which it’s said, I’ve taken it seriously to heart.

Still, this puts me – and many other soon-to-be MBA grads – in a bit of an awkward position going forward.

My goal is to work in a CSR role within a big consumer brand, so I’ve stacked my resume with CSR-related projects and classes to show future employers that I know what I’m talking about.

But if in the end it turns out that these kinds of activities don’t necessarily translate into a job-seeker’s “competitive advantage,” did I waste my time on these projects when I should have been doing something else? Obviously that’s being overly dramatic, but the issue certainly gives me pause.

In the end, the best advice I can give to CSR job-seekers is sort of a hybrid model:

Learn the business through functional experience, but bring sustainability to work every day.

Yes, getting that marketing, or finance, or supply chain experience under your belt will be crucially important – not only to build credibility and a reputation for yourself, but also as a way to help you think about sustainability and CSR opportunities from within.

But just because you’re working in a non-CSR function doesn’t mean that you should chuck your CSR know-how and skills out the window. On the contrary, your understanding and flexibility in CSR can only help you do your functional job better.

We can still hope that one day CSR will be such a corporate priority that all companies will recruit for these positions. In the meantime, my advice is to earn your stripes at a company you respect and admire, make your interest and intentions in sustainability clear, and with time transition into the CSR job you want.

As the old saying goes, “Your patience will be rewarded”.

The Role of Social Responsibility in Branding

These days I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about consumers and the brands they love. I’m taking a Branding class this semester, and each week we do a case study of a different company and the branding challenges it faces.

Perhaps the biggest insight I’ve gleaned from the first couple of months is this:

Consumers own brands, not marketers.

That’s right – as much as companies may want to believe they have control over their brand and its meanings, in the end consumers are the ones who instill a brand with its true essence.

That’s because, at its core, the value of a brand comes from fulfilling some inherent consumer need, want or desire. While companies can (and obviously should) manage their brand, in the end consumers are the meaning makers of what the brand stands for.

As part of this course, I’m working on a consulting project for a regional consumer goods company that wants to go national. For confidentiality’s sake, let’s pretend this company makes cleaning products (it doesn’t).

Over the last few weeks my team and I have spent a lot of time doing a deep dive into the company and what its brand means for consumers. How do consumers use these cleaning products? What do the products allow consumers to accomplish? What emotional or social benefits come from using them?

What we’ve found so far is that the people who love this brand really love this brand.

In fact, they’re pretty fanatical. The products they use, and more importantly the brand overall, serves to truly define part of their identity.

In essence, it’s not just a product they use. It’s a lifestyle.

For the most part it’s been fascinating and even fun to see how these loyal consumers use, evangelize, and embody this brand.

Yet, during my research I stumbled upon some concerning evidence to suggest that some consumers had taken this fanaticism too far – namely, multiple YouTube videos of consumers using the product inappropriately. To follow the example of our phony product, let’s say consumers were uploading videos of themselves sniffing the fumes from the cleaning products and getting violently ill.

Of course, with my interest in corporate social responsibility, warning bells immediately went off in my head:

• Assuming the company knows about these videos, how should it respond?
• What is the company doing to prevent this dangerous activity?
• What legal implications exist if someone is seriously hurt engaging in this behavior?

And the list goes on.

But beyond the obvious CSR questions, I also thought of my key branding takeaway thus far:

If consumers make the meaning for a brand, what happens if they turn the meaning into something the company doesn’t want (in this case, a vehicle for irresponsible and unhealthy behavior)?

What is a company’s obligation, if any, for social responsibility in branding?

Some brands – alcohol-producers, cigarette companies, gun manufacturers – know that responsibility comes with the territory (although it’s certainly debatable whether they themselves always promote responsibility among consumers).

But what about brands that take on meanings that companies didn’t intend? If consumers own the brand, what opportunities do brand managers have to reclaim negative meanings and even to combat abuse of the product?

People often talk about corporate social responsibility as a brand builder – do it right and your brand will be strengthened and given more value.

But in this case, can CSR actually be a brand definer? Can social responsibility help brand managers looking to refine the (presumably unwanted) meanings that consumers have instilled in their brand?

This is the question I’ll be trying to answer over the next few months, and I’ll be sure to let you know what I find out. Since I’m still a student of branding, though, and certainly no expert, I’d love to hear your thoughts:

What role do you think CSR can play in helping to manage brands? What companies or case studies do you know of that exemplify this issue of unintended, negative and/or dangerous brand meanings?

One example we’ve looked at in class is Harley Davidson and the Hell’s Angels – talk about a brand meaning (aka: organized crime) that a company might want to refine!

Thanks for weighing in…

Finding the Point of Balance

I’m pleased to share that my birthday was this week (for those who know me well, you know this is a big deal).

I love birthdays in general, and I especially love mine. Why?

Well, my birthday is an important time for me for a couple of reasons. Yes, I love cake and presents and having an excuse to go out to dinner or celebrate.

But more than anything, I love my birthday because it’s the one time during the year that I stop and take stock of where I’m heading.

Every February I usually take some time to sit quietly and think – to reflect on what happened over the last year as well as to visualize where I want to go in the coming year.

This is what I call making my Birthday Resolution.

Over the years my Birthday Resolutions have helped me chart my course and provided some much-needed clarity.

This year my birthday (and thus my Resolution) comes at a particularly interesting and unique time in my life. In three months I will graduate from business school and head out into the big wide world again.

But where will I head to?

Over the last year and a half my education has opened my eyes to possibilities that I didn’t even know existed. I’ve developed a true passion for using business to effect change, and most days I wake up eager and excited to find a job that allows me the chance to “do good and do well”.

Yet some days I wake up feeling weighted down by the burden of responsibility. Whether it’s dealing with the inevitable dread of school debt, or feeling overwhelmed by the expectations of others, sometimes I just can’t see the forest through the trees.

So how does this relate to my Birthday Resolution?

In some ways, you could say my life these days is a bit of a see-saw, with my job search right smack in the middle of things.

On one hand, I want my new job to be motivated by mission and purpose.

I want to find an opportunity that offers personal fulfillment and the chance to do good for other people. I also want to land in an organization and in a role that allows me to act as a good global citizen.

Yet as graduation nears, I’ll be honest: I have a lot of debt to deal with.

And sometimes that translates into feeling like I just need a job – any job – so I can start paying that off.

Not to mention the fact that it's easy feel pressured to take “the right” job after school – that is, the kind of job that most MBAs go for (consulting, finance, strategy etc). That may not be what I want, but when everyone else is doing it, it's hard to resist the urge to cave.

Given all of this, my Birthday Resolution is all about balance.

My goal for the year ahead is to find that point of balance on the see-saw - which means looking for opportunities that both quench my thirst for social purpose while also helping to turn down the volume on some of my anxieties.

Is this asking too much? Maybe. But I never said my Resolution had to be practical!

Sure, I know I’ll have to make trade-offs. This is not a scenario in which I can be guaranteed the best of both worlds. But perhaps I can strive for a job after school that is a happy medium between the two extremes.

What does this look like? To be honest I have no clue. But I’m working on it.

And I'm convinced that there are opportunities out there that will allow me to balance out my see-saw. I just have to find them!

As I kick my job search up a notch, I'll be sure to report on my progress here at The Changebase. In the meantime, have you ever made birthday resolutions? Even if it's not your birthday, I encourage you to think about stopping for a moment and taking stock of the direction in which you're heading. How can you reposition yourself to find your point of balance on the see-saw?

Eating Seasonal (and Sustainable)

I've written before on The Changebase about my own journey to find sustainable, local food - including this post on defining what local food really is. The big conclusion I reached after trying to define "local" was that what I really meant was eating seasonal.

By eating seasonally, we get a couple of benefits:

1. Food tastes better: Anyone living in a New England winter who's bought a package of raspberries shipped from California (or farther away!) knows what I'm talking about. There's a reason why raspberries, and many other fruits and veggies, don't grow naturally in the winter. Wait until prime growing season and your tastebuds will be rewarded.
2. It doesn't cost as much: Buying produce in season means you're getting it when it's most abundant - which means it's less expensive. Trust me, your wallet will thank you.
3. The planet is happier (and so are you): Ok, maybe "happy" isn't the right word, but there's plenty of evidence that eating in season places less stress on the environmental systems needed to grow your food. It means avoiding much of the artificial "stuff" that gets used to grow your watermelons in December, which by extension means ingesting less artificial stuff when you eat. 

So what's the catch? Well, I've found that it's actually kind of difficult to find out what's seasonal - given that each region of the world has different growing seasons (as well as natural resources that make growing certain foods easier or more difficult).

That said, I did find one resource recently that I thought was worth sharing.

Eat Seasonably is a UK-based campaign to get people thinking about what they eat and when. I first heard about this group via Twitter, and when I saw the incredibly helpful seasonal calendar they created, I was hooked.

Granted, I'm contradicting myself because this is an initiative that's focused on the United Kingdom, so the information in this calendar isn't completely applicable to where I (or maybe you) live. Still, the interactive map and downloadable pdf they put together is such a great tool that I still think it's worth sharing.

Check out the website and play with the interactive calendar - it's an easy, seamless, and visually interesting way of understanding what's best, what's available, and what should be avoided when.

According to the calendar, February's best includes leeks and cabbage...

Happy eating (seasonally)!