Highlights from Day Two of the Business Community-Impact Symposium
By Jeff Hoffman, Program Director, The Conference Board Business-Community Impact Symposium and Global Social Investing Council
Last week, I shared highlights from day one of The Conference Board’s Business-Community Impact Symposium, held in New York City over a day and a half on 10-11 February. We simply learned too much to fit into one blog, so in this post I take a look at some of the key content that was presented during the second half of the conference.
Data and research
Day two began with all-important data and research, the key element that we need to prove the business case for what we do and demonstrate the impact that we make. The Conference Board’s Alex Parkinson and CECP’s Carmen Perez presented two recent studies: Giving in Numbers: 2014 Edition, published by CECP in association with The Conference Board, and Framing Social Impact Measurement, a key business issue report from The Conference Board that serves as a compendium for the field. The 2015 Giving in Numbers Survey on 2014 contributions is now open for submissions. We encourage you to take part and to help bring more important data to the field.
Social entrepreneurs: The new frontier
From B-corps and social enterprises to sustainable business practices and shared value, strategic philanthropy is now sharing space with other core elements of the business plan in tackling social and environmental challenges. Four organizations—Points of Light Civic Accelerator, The Case Foundation, Shore to Shore Advisory and Library For All—discussed the opportunities that exist to create positive change through entrepreneurism. In particular, Isabel Sheinman, Director of Business Development at Library For All, shared a compelling example of social entrepreneurism in practice. The organization has built a digital library for the developing world, which it aims to use to increase literacy and support education in all subject areas by providing access to books.
Collective impact
Collective Impact is so much more than a current buzzword. Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact. Laura S. L. Herman, Managing Director of FSG, took the group through the collective impact framework and discussed the importance of funding a backbone organization to ensure that all of the individual parts work together effectively.
The grand finale
It’s important to end the conference on a note of inspiration, and that was delivered by the grand dame of purpose, Carol Cone of Edelman. Around the world, corporate leaders, such as Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman, are stepping up to the “bully pulpit” and making bold declarations about how to improve society by aligning organizational goals with societal and environmental issues. These actions signify a shift in leadership, where societal issues are becoming integrated into core business strategy and culture. Organizational purpose, social innovation, reputation management, and stakeholder engagement are all at play. Through these inspirational examples, Carol explored how to prove the case for integration of business and societal goals.
Despite a packed agenda, we still also found time for some “impact moments,” during which we heard leading examples of social impact creation. Look out for an overview of these in a future post.
About the author:
Jeff Hoffman
Program Director
The Conference Board Global Social Investing Council
Jeff Hoffman is an accomplished corporate executive who has served on the global stage in the areas of corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, human resources, operations, special projects and events. Through board and commission leadership roles, he has a distinguished history working with non-profit, civic and government agencies on strategic direction and innovative programs. Jeff is president of Jeff Hoffman & Associates, a global corporate citizenship, philanthropy and civic engagement firm that enables businesses, organizations and individuals re-imagine a world full of hope, promise and opportunity. He also serves as Program Director for The Conference Board Global Social Investing Council.
