Knowing and Doing: The Wisdom of the Field

As the new year sprints forward, I am struck by the amount of new thinking and new literature surrounding the topic of corporate social responsibility, particularly philanthropy. In meteorological terms, a new weather front has arrived and continues to generate unsettling conditions.

As it is, grantmakers struggle to remain current in the management and stewardship of existing grants and relationships with community partners. In addition to an already demanding set of responsibilities, grantmakers are increasingly asked to find new and better ways to demonstrate “value” to multiple stakeholders. Measuring value, of course, is not a new idea. However, new literature on value and impact measurement, combined with increased pressure to report results, has dramatically affected the practice of philanthropy in the past year.

Knowing what these and other new ideas and practices mean to our individual foundations or giving programs requires 1) a complete conceptual understanding of the changing philanthropic landscape and 2) answering for ourselves how these new ideas are relevant to-and ultimately, influential on-our current or future programming. For example, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer’s idea of “shared value” has been met with varying levels of acceptance.

Measurement is the key driver in almost all of the new literature on philanthropy. Little is known about how each foundation or giving program has developed its own means of communicating value to both internal and external stakeholders. For me, the wisdom of how the field is responding to the calls for value and impact is important information to be shared and discussed.

To help weather philanthropy’s new environment, I encourage you to attend the Council on Foundation’s Annual Conference. We are organizing a special session for corporate grantmakers to take stock of philanthropy’s new environment-what some are calling a “transformative moment for our field.”

The cornerstone of the session will be the presentation of new findings on the challenges faced by corporate funders on April 29 from 8-11 a.m. More important, we have designed the session to hear from participants and practitioners and to discuss challenges and solutions. You will find a great balance between knowing what’s new and what we are all doing to improve our practice. Come and experience the wisdom of the field.

Michael Bzdak is a director of corporate contributions for Johnson & Johnson, a member of the Council on Foundations.