Award programs spotlight ethical, socially responsible companies

Have you had the privilege of working with a business that provides exceptional service in an ethical and socially responsible manner? Well, not only can you patronize the company – and provide valuable referrals – you can also go to the next level by nominating it for an award.

A number of programs recognize businesses that go the extra mile through corporate volunteerism and charitable contributions, as well as demonstrate a high level of ethics, community leadership and professional integrity. While recognition programs are not usually a motivation to act in an ethical manner, they can reward businesses by helping them retain customers, attract new clients and recruit quality employees. Even more important, recognition programs remind businesses that they can make a real difference in our communities.

The following are a few recognition programs that express appreciation for the positive impact of Minnesota’s businesses:

The Jefferson Awards were founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and Sam Beard as a national recognition program for individual and corporate volunteerism.  Beginning in 2008, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal teamed up with the Wilmington, Del.-based program to present awards to Twin Cities businesses for their outstanding public and community service. This year, 12 companies received the award – one per month – and will be honored at a reception at the Hotel Ivy in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

The Minnesota Keystone Program recognizes and honors companies that donate at least 2% of their pre-tax earnings to the community.  The program was begun over 30 years ago and is offered through the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. It also serves as the basis for Minnesota Business Gives, a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Foundation initiative. Businesses that enroll in the Keystone Program can choose to participate without public recognition. In-kind donations can be considered in the calculations, and closely held businesses can include personal as well as business donations. See worksheet for more information about calculations.

Now going into its 11^th year, the Better Business Bureau Integrity Awards are presented to companies in Minnesota and North Dakota that have demonstrated a commitment to conducting daily business operations in an ethical manner. The BBB invites nominations by individuals who feel a company has shown an exceptional degree of ethics. Nominees are then categorized according to company size, based on number of employees. A panel of independent volunteer business and community leaders reviews the entries and decides on the winners.

Minnesota Business Ethics Award was established in 1999 by the Twin Cities Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals and the Center for Ethical Business Cultures at the University of St. Thomas. The MBEA Program seeks to raise the standards for business ethics in Minnesota and to recognize businesses that reflect the highest standards of ethical performance.  Like the BBB’s Integrity Awards Program, MBEA recipients are selected based on company size. A business may be nominated for an award by a customer, client, employee, vendor or a private citizen who is impressed with a company’s ethical business conduct. Local finalists may also move on to compete at the national level.

- LuAnne Speeter

Giving circles wield greater influence, stronger advocacy

When it comes to charitable giving, most of us assume that corporations and foundations carry the load. However, according to the Giving Institute/Giving USA Foundation, 75% of the $307 billion contributed in 2008 came from individuals and 7% from bequests. Corporations and foundations provided 5% and 13% of charitable contributions, respectively.

Individuals tend to be even more generous when they take part in an increasingly popular phenomenon known as “giving circles.”

A giving circle is a social group in which individual participants pool their donations and decide together where the money should be distributed. A study released in May 2009, “The Impact of Giving Together,” shows that those within a giving circle tend to contribute more than if they were to give on their own. Giving circles exert significant influence in other ways, as well. According to the study:

• Giving circle participants are more strategic about cause selections. Members put more effort into researching organizations and give toward a specified vision for change.
• They have a more long-term perspective and are more likely to make multi-year gifts.
• Members give to a broader array of causes, especially those that support women, ethnic and minority groups, the arts and culture, neighborhood development, advocacy and international aid.
• Giving circle members also express a stronger sense of civic responsibility, channeling their energies into community involvement and changing government policies.
• Participants gain a greater understanding of philanthropy and the issues that nonprofits face in serving their constituencies.
• They believe they have better leverage in affecting change in the community, that giving can have a positive impact on the health of the community, and government should do something to reduce income differences.

If you’re interested in starting your own giving circle, start by researching through the Minnesota Council on Foundations or your own regional resource. Make it your primary goal to help foster a greater level of commitment from members, thereby increasing your ability to influence positive results. Also, think about the size of the group; larger groups tend to focus more on the strategic giving aspects, whereas smaller circles value civic engagement and volunteerism.

- LuAnne Speeter

Charitable giving in the “new economy”

When was the last time you read a money-advice article that didn’t start out with the words, “In these tough economic times”? That phrase makes it sound like we just need to trudge through this; it assumes we’ll eventually return to the good old days of relative abundance.

In reality, though, life going forward may be quite different, and that will greatly affect our charitable giving.

The “new economy” will require us all to redefine abundance. We may never return to the days when we had the discretionary dollars that allowed us to merely skim from the top in order to feed a substantial giving portfolio. From now on, we may need to form new guidelines for giving by examining our lifestyle and deciding “how much is enough?” – and “how much is more than enough?”

Minnesota’s nonprofits are redefining themselves in the new economy, too. Dealing with the effects of rising unemployment, tighter household budgets and reduced government assistance, many of the state’s charitable programs are cutting their budgets and staff, and consolidating efforts. Others are being forced to dissolve, leaving the most vulnerable in our communities with fewer resources.

As a result, our donated dollars are more necessary than ever.

You can still be an effective giver in this economy – it just may require you to be more strategic in your philanthropy. Talk to your financial advisor and tax professional about how to make the most of your donation. Ask how to better time your gifts, which assets to select, and if you should consider a trust fund (such as a charitable remainder trust or charitable lead trust) or a donor-advised fund.

Nov. 17 is Give to the Max Day!

Minnesota’s new online giving Web site, www.GiveMN.org, makes giving to your favorite charities easier than ever. And on Nov. 17, 2009, every donation made through the site will receive a portion of a $500,000 match by The Saint Paul Foundation, Minneapolis Foundation and Bush Foundation. Donations must be $10 or more and paid online through the GiveMn.org site to be eligible. Learn more about making your donation more effective on Nov. 17.

- LuAnne Speeter

Celebrity quiz: How do the stars align with their favorite charities?

Deciding which cause to support is not a casual matter to most of us. Imagine how challenging it is if you have millions to donate!

Celebrities are like most other contributors, however, in that they often choose charities that reflect their personal interests and passions.

The Giving Back Fund recently released its third annual list of top donating celebrities. See if you can match up the celebrities who gave the most in 2008 with their causes based on what you know about their personalities, values and life stories.

 Pencils up …

CELEBRITY		CAUSE(S)*
Paul Newman (until his death in Sept. 2008) ($21 million)		A. Community development; The Paris Review literary magazine
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt ($13.4 million)		B. A fund to build earthquake-resistant schools in China
Mel Gibson ($6.5 million)		C. Community improvement projects
Richard Childress ($5 million)		D. Health initiatives, education, emergency campaigns, and environmental protection
Oscar de la Hoya ($3.5 million)		E. Better U Foundation that distributed grants to Generation Rescue and Michael Fisher Fund
Oprah Winfrey ($2.5 million)		F. Holy Family Church in Agoura Hills, Calif.
Sam Waterston ($2.1 million)		G. The [Celebrity Name] College Prep Academy in Las Vegas, Nev.
Yao Ming ($2 million)		H. Community development; The Paris Review literary magazine
Patricia Cornwell (author) ($2 million)		I. New York Restoration Project; National Resource Defense Council
David Geffen ($1.7 million)		J. After-school programs across the country and scholarships for students in Whitesboro, N.J.
Barbra Streisand  ($1.7 million)		K. Funding for Athletic Hall of Fame at University of Memphis
Marcia Carsey ($1.6 million)		L. [Celebrity Name] Foundation to support AIDS services, medical research, and arts organizations
Leonardo DiCaprio ($1.5 million)		M. Various health research programs, veterans’ rights groups and children’s rights organizations
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith ($1.5 million)		N. A hospital and a charter school in Los Angeles
LeRoy Neiman ($1.5 million)		O. Refugees International; the American Institute for Stuttering
Dean Koontz ($1.4 million)		P. The [Celebrity Name] Foundation, supporting the arts and education about the arts
Mark Bulger ($1.3 million)		Q. Various animal charities; pet spaying and neutering programs across the country
Bob Barker ($1.2 million)		R. Amnesty International
Nicolas Cage ($1.1 million)		S. Riley Hospital for Children; Northeast Medical Center; Hendrick Marrow Foundation
Drew Barrymore ($1 million)		T. Canine Companions for Independence
Jenny Jones ($1 million)		U. The Arts Horizons [Celebrity Name] Art Center in Harlem, N.Y.
Jimmy Dean ($1 million)		V. The [Celebrity Name] Cardiovascular Research and Education Program in Los Angeles
Penny Hardaway  ($1 million)		W. The U.N.’s World Food Program
Roger and Chaz Ebert ($1 million)		X. Wayland Baptist University, for campus improvements and endowments
Isabel Allende ($905,000)		Y. The [Celebrity Name] Program for Film Studies Fund at the University of Illinois
Larry David ($720,000)		Z. A pediatric trauma center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Andre Agassi ($540,000)		AA. Health clinic in Ethiopia; New Orleans redevelopment; the Armed Services YMCA
Jeff Gordon ($526,000)		BB. UC Regents Santa Barbara; Free Press; Music Academy of the West
Leonard and Susan Nimoy ($510,000)		CC. Harvard University and City University of New York
Cher ($500,000)		DD. Global Women’s Fund; Marin Education Fund
Jim Carrey ($500,000)		EE. The BackStoppers Inc., a police officers and firefighters fund of St. Louis, Mo.

*Causes listed are representative and may not encompass the celebrity’s total philanthropic efforts.

Answers: Paul Newman (D), Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (AA), Mel Gibson (F), Richard Childress (Z), Oscar de la Hoya (N), Oprah Winfrey (J), Sam Waterston (O), Yao Ming (B), Patricia Cornwell (CC), David Geffen (L), Barbra Streisand (V), Marcia Carsey (BB), Leonardo DiCaprio (A), Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith (H), LeRoy Neiman (U), Dean Koontz (T), Mark Bulger (EE), Bob Barker (Q), Nicolas Cage (R), Drew Barrymore (W), Jenny Jones (C), Jimmy Dean (X), Penny Hardaway (K), Roger and Chaz Ebert (Y), Isabel Allende (DD), Larry David (I), Andre Agassi (G), Jeff Gordon (S), Leonard and Susan Nimoy (P), Cher (M), Jim Carrey (E).

See related post: Pick a social mission that’s true to your core business

- LuAnne Speeter

Cause and effect: Measure how your corporate giving is making a difference

Chances are, you started up a corporate giving program because you care about one or more causes and want to make a difference – whether your goal is to help eradicate a disease, provide a warm meal or shelter for those in need, or clean up the environment. Just participating may seem to be reward enough, but measuring and promoting your program’s effectiveness is a wise business strategy.

There are a number of stakeholders who will benefit by learning the program’s results:

• The partnering nonprofit organization
• The individuals who are the end recipients of donations and volunteer efforts
• Your employees
• Your board of directors
• Your customers who contribute to your cause program
• Community members

Promoting the results gives a positive boost to all those involved and encourages ongoing effort.  It also enables you to make adjustments during the process to better reach your goals, and to help you assess at year’s end whether to continue the cause relationship.

First, decide what you want your corporate giving program to accomplish, and then which metrics are important to track. Consider the following areas:

Donations and donors

Generate enthusiasm by setting a financial goal and a timeline. In many cases, the nonprofit organization can help you determine your first year’s goal based on your company size. For subsequent years, develop a stretch goal that exceeds the previous year.  Track online donations through a dedicated landing page on your Web site, or through sites such as GiveMn.org. Keep counts of noncash donations, such as number of toys donated to Toys For Tots or pounds of nonperishable items for food shelves.

Corporate growth and brand perception

Determine how much your company revenue and brand reputation is benefiting from your cause promotion by gathering a variety of metrics and other information, such as:

• Leads generated from cause marketing efforts tracked through unique toll-free numbers, URLs or “how heard” questions
• Sales trend (over  five years, if possible)
• Share value trend (over five years)
• Customer testimonials
• Focus groups and customer surveys on brand perception

Employee satisfaction, loyalty and recruitment

According to the 2009 Corporate Citizenship Study, 56% of survey respondents believe that working for a socially responsible employer makes a difference. Determine the effects of your corporate social responsibility program by measuring the following:

• Employee satisfaction through surveys conducted before the program’s initiation and annually thereafter
• Annual contribution of employee volunteer time, five-year trend
• Employee growth, five-year trend
• Employee retention, five-year trend

Include the above results in your annual report or as a separate corporate social responsibility report. Round out hard data with testimonials from a representative of your nonprofit partner organization, customers, employees and community members.

- LuAnne Speeter

Related post: Enrich the lives of your employees with socially responsible efforts

10 ethical questions to ask yourself before closing the sale

I was asked to bid on a marketing project yesterday. While preparing the bid, I found that I needed to clarify my stance on certain business practices. Specifically, I stated to my prospect that a form of partnership he was seeking was not permissible within my ethics and posed a conflict of interests.

In other words, I knew that type of partnership would make feel disingenuous and possibly cause me to lose sleep down the road.

In our day-to-day business dealings, most ethics-based decisions are cut-and-dried. Companies often have codes that specify what’s acceptable and what isn’t. But in the sales field, when deals are often made on-the-fly, requiring flexibility and innovation, we’re tempted to push the ethical boundaries. So it’s especially important to not only know your company’s code of ethics (the “letter of the law”), but also apply moral standards (the “spirit of the law”) to situations that aren’t so black-and-white.

Sometimes being ethical means you sacrifice a sale. But clarifying your position upfront helps you avoid an uncomfortable situation or damaging legal ramifications.

Temptations and traps to avoid

• Misrepresenting your product or service
• Price fixing
• Bait-and-switch practices
• Surprise charges and add-ons after the sale
• Misuse of proprietary data and customer lists
• Padding an expense account
• Badmouthing a competitor
• Kickbacks to the buyer
• Unauthorized signing of agreements

Whether or not your company has a defined code of ethics, defining and following certain guidelines are not only common sense, but good business.

Ethically responsible questions to keep in mind

1. Do I know these claims to be true or am I just saying them because it guarantees a sale?
2. Am I doing my best to educate the customer about the product before the sale?
3. Do I understand the terms of the sales policies and what’s legally binding?
4. Can this data be divulged or is meant to be proprietary?
5. When quoting statistics, do I know the primary source and if it’s reliable?
6. Do I know federal and state laws that apply to the company’s products and warranties?
7. Am I making clear what triggers any claims to a money-back guarantee?
8. Do I always think twice before saying anything negative about a competitor, another customer or a fellow employee?
9. Do I ask permission before using a testimonial from a satisfied customer?
10. Am I focusing on solving my client’s problem or am I just intent on making the sale?

Please comment and tell others what you’d add as #11.

- LuAnne Speeter

Related post: How ethical are you really? Take this quiz

Why are you keeping your cause a secret?

Maybe it’s shyness, humility or simply Minnesota Nice. But many small business owners around the state are keeping the good they do for charity to themselves. Whether they’ve contributed a check, a percentage of annual sales or employee volunteer hours, some companies never get the word out to the public.

That’s a shame.

By being quiet, you could be depriving your cause. Your donation is only a portion of the potential benefits your chosen charity will derive from your partnership. If you really want to maximize your effectiveness, take on the role as ambassador. That means you could:

• Show photos of your volunteers in action on your Web site, on your company’s Facebook page or in your newsletter.
• Include the cause’s logo on your home page and add your commitment, such as “2% of every dollar you spend with us is donated to help [cause name] achieve its goals.”
• Display your cause’s logo with photos at point-of-sale locations.
• Talk about your cause – world of mouth is the most powerful influencer.
• Submit press releases about your cause partnership to local newspapers. Increase the odds of it being picked up by including a human interest story, too.

Minnesota businesses are generous. According to a 2002 survey of 595 companies conducted through Building Business Investment in Community,* the vast majority of businesses make cash contributions to their favorite charities:

Business size by # of employees	% of businesses making cash contributions
<20	72%
20-99	76%
100-499	93%
500+	96%

In addition, many companies donate products, sponsor scholarships and events, contribute employee hours to school and community projects, and serve on nonprofit or agency boards. Add more impact to your generosity and dedication. Tell the community about your partnership, give information about the cause and provide others with a way to contribute, too.

*A project of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and 12 Minnesota business and philanthropic organizations.

- LuAnne Speeter

M.B.A. programs prepare socially aware entrepreneurs

A growing number of graduate students are seeking to specialize in social entrepreneurship – the development of for-profit companies that deliver socially responsible products or services, or are tied to social causes. As a response, business schools are tailoring their curricula to accommodate their interests.

The following are a few graduate programs that address this new paradigm:

The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School explores such models as venture philanthropy and an ethical stock exchange – an alternative that is less focused on financial and more on environmental and social returns than the traditional exchange model.

The Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship is an on-campus group at Tuck School of Business located at Dartmouth College. The vision of the Allwin Initiative is to embue Tuck students with “a heightened social conscience, a strong sense of business ethics, an understanding of social enterprise, and a familiarity with the management tools that facilitate corporate responsibility and community involvement.”

The Center for Responsible Business at the University of California at Berkely/Haas School of Business was founded in 2003 thanks to the generosity of actor/philanthropist Paul Newman, among others. The Center offers an integrated portfolio of research, teaching, experiential learning and outreach.

According to the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University’s The Johnson School, solutions to environmental and social problems “are business opportunities, not a cost of doing business.” The program includes such courses as Sustainability as a Driver for Innovation in the Entrepreneurial Organization and Corporate Social Responsibility: Organizational Issues.

A number of conditions within the U.S. and globally could be driving today’s budding entrepreneurs to have a deeper sense of social and environmental responsibility, such as:

• A natural outgrowth of our more socially aware society.
• A tightening of the job market, leading to more creative start-up ventures.
• A reaction to the financial crisis and what is interpreted as Wall Street greed.
• An opportunity for laid-off employees to find greater meaning in their next career stage.

In any case, we can look forward to an era of significant social and environmental solutions by for-profit businesses. If they do it right, they will do well by doing good.

- LuAnne Speeter

Online charitable giving is for businesses, too

Many charitable organizations make donating to their causes as easy for consumers as purchasing from a favorite online vendor. You’ve probably seen the “Donate Now” buttons on pop-up windows for a merchant’s charity or on e-mail messages from politicians.

A new program – GiveMN.org – is set to launch on Nov. 2 and will enable participating charities in Minnesota to not only provide online donation capabilities, but a number of other features to facilitate giving. For example, donors can search for a charity based on type of cause – such as an animal shelter or free clinic – or by location. Plus, donors can track their donations to various charities in one location, making reporting easier at tax time.

Better still, GiveMN.org gives donors the tools to generate group giving through social media sites, such as Facebook. And, depending on the charity, you’ll be able to designate how your donation will be used.

While GiveMN.org is directed to individual donors, it can easily be adapted for use by business owners, too. For example, consider sending an e-mail blast to your customers specifically to promote a cause – preferably one that is rooted in your community – and include a donation button. Draw readers in by explaining your personal commitment to the cause or tell the story of an individual whose life could be made better by your customers’ support. Begin a Facebook page dedicated to the cause to track the donations and invite your customers to share their thoughts or experiences. 

With the holiday season and end-of-year giving nearly upon us, now is the perfect time to select a cause for your business. Online giving makes it easy to launch a fundraising program and generate support that could make a real difference in your community.

What motivates employees to volunteer? Hint: The answer isn’t personal recognition

If your company’s social responsibility program includes volunteerism, it can have tremendous impact not only on the community, but also on your company and employees.

How the community benefits

• Increased access to resources
• Improved health and welfare
• Enhanced economic development
• Community needs are addressed

How your company benefits

• Enhanced reputation
• Increased product/service awareness
• Raised productivity
• Improved staff satisfaction and retention

How your employees benefit

• Increased community awareness/involvement
• Heightened employee satisfaction
• Acceleration of professional development
• Opportunities for leadership
• Improved attitude and outlook 

Source: Corporate Volunteerism Council – Twin Cities

But what motivates employees to offer their time and skills to a charitable cause? The answer may surprise you.

In past years, personal recognition was the primary motivation for corporate volunteering, according to LBG Associates, the firm that launched the study involving more than 8,000 employees in 36 companies. However, the latest study, conducted from late 2008 to early 2009, showed the following:

When it comes to recognition, employees rank “a donation made to my charity when I volunteer” highest among all other forms of recognition.

When asked to rank the reasons they volunteer, employees listed the following on a 1-5 scale, with 5 as “very important”:

• The cause is important to me personally (4.35)
• Community organizations are experiencing financial hardship (3.61)
• My volunteering results in a donation for the organization from my company (3.53)
• The cause is important to my company (3.35)
• The charity came to the company to talk about what they do for the community (3.08)

When you’re selecting a charitable organization and you want maximum participation from your employees:

1. Start by looking at several options that are relevant to the majority of your employees’ interests and skill sets.
2. Choose venues that are local and easily accessible.
3. Ask employees to vote among the charities and go with the most popular choice(s).

- LuAnne Speeter