In our final installation of Philanthropy Insights, Brittany Mattfeld Craig, Managing Director of Campaign Engagement at Global Impact, discussed different frameworks for effective corporate giving with guests Anita Whitehead and Ashley Gravlee. Anita is Global Impact’s Board Chair, Principal of Corporate Citizenship Services at KPMG and Board Chair at KPMG Foundation. Ashley is a Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Novelis.
Takeaways include:
There is no one-size-fits-all framework.
KPMG gives in two ways – under its corporate side and through its foundation. The foundation’s four focus areas, education, equity, community, and relief and resilience, provide guideposts for how they give, and the organization is currently creating a lot of specialized programming around the foundation. At Novelis there is no foundation so decisions are made in an overarching global framework that contains different layers of local ownership and input. There are pros and cons to each framework, so the best fit depends on your organization. What both frameworks have in common is that they are transparent, inclusive and business focused.
Your peers are your best resource.
When it comes to moving your organization’s constantly evolving strategy into implementation, Anita said, “Everyone tries to find the textbook answer around this, but there is not one. A lot of it comes from peer-to-peer conversations.” Both corporations and nonprofits can find insight from peer groups, where practitioners have a safe space to discuss and learn from others who have likely faced the same situations. Anita and Ashley initially met through a peer group years ago and have continued their connection since!
Reporting is a new challenge on the horizon.
When asked what corporate giving will look like for their respective companies in the next year, both Anita and Ashley’s answers revolved around reporting. Anita noted, “We just made this commitment, we need a system. We need to measure impact. We need to be able to report not just to our stakeholders, but to our employees and to our communities.” Ashley agreed and added “The near to long term priority is the sophistication of ESG reporting…That will take our programs to a whole different level and all the things we do on a day-to-day basis is going to be amplified if it’s in our financial reporting.” They have both leveraged Global Impact to support that problem solving and provide solutions to meet their current needs.
Thank you for following along our Philanthropy Insights series! Stay up-to-date with the latest philanthropy and Global Impact news by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, Greater Giving Weekly, or reach out to see how we can help your organization achieve greater giving.
