From Philanthropic Strategy to Strategic Philanthropy: Selected Canadian Case Studies

The rapidly growing literature investigating corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy attests to the world-wide interest in this trend, both from an academic perspective and as a legitimate component of commercial success (Burson-Marsteller, 2000; Waddock & Graves, 1997). As Marx (1999) points out, the evolution of corporate philanthropy from donation programs to strategic philanthropy has been well documented in the nonprofit literature, particularly as it relates to US corporations, and indeed research interest in this topic dates back to the 1930s and 1940s (Carroll, 1999). Smith (1994) suggests that most US corporations established philanthropic foundations in the 1960s to demonstrate their obligation to support the American version of the social contract. Part of that contract involved the separation of profit, nonprofit and government roles. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation:

Striking a Strategic Balance: Enhancing Corporate Philanthropy through Service Learning

Corporate giving is increasingly important to the nonprofit sector. However, corporate philanthropy has been slow to adopt insights from the sector’s decades-long experimentation with strategic philanthropy. This article explores the question of how corporate philanthropy might leverage service learning partnerships with students in university-based nonprofit education programs to enhance strategy and maximize social impact. We propose a model for strategic corporate philanthropy comprising two axes, on which the corporation can gauge whether its giving is more proactive or reactive, and technocratic or humanistic, to find a balance between strategy and rigidity. Qualitative data were collected from a service learning project between Toyota Motor North America, Master of Public Administration (MPA) students at a Texas university, and residents of an economically challenged area of West Dallas. Findings suggest that service learning partnerships can help corporate philanthropists strike an appropriate strategic balance, whereby the corporation, individuals being served, and students all benefit.

Sustainable development through Corporative Social Responsability, Corporative Philanthropy and Creating Shared Value

This paper analyses the “strategic philanthropy” proposal, made by professors Porter and Kramer, according to which, a company’s social responsibility must lead to the agreement between social benefit and economic benefit. The company intentionally identifies the key areas in which the community and shareholders’ interests are related so they can take certain measures that improve each other’s conditions. With that in mind, companies should focus on those philanthropy activities that fortify their competitiveness, that is, those activities that equal a progress in the situation of the productive factors and requirements of demand. Drawing from this approach of creating social and economic value, we carried out a study of the main international corporations in which the public and the company’s interests are the same thus appearing new opportunities of creating shared value.