Companies in resource-intensive industries have long been sensitive to their impact on the environment. For them, including the environment as a strategic focus area is a given. For everyone else, though, it’s probably not. You can argue that giving to environmental causes is not strategic for so-called “green” companies—those with lower carbon footprints, such as Read more »
Taking the Disaster Out of Disaster Relief
Disaster season has begun with Hurricane Barry hitting Louisiana; a 5.4 earthquake rocking Southern California; and rain and hail making headlines in late June and early July. Disaster season is upon us. Are you ready? The last thing you want is to be scrambling to respond to a disaster, whether at home or abroad. The Read more »
Why You Need to Benchmark Your Corporate Citizenship Program
When you’re caught up in the day to day running of your citizenship program, there’s very little time to catch your breath, step back, and think about the big picture. When you do get the time to strategize, it’s important to look inside and outside the organization when evaluating your strategy. Looking inside is the Read more »
When is 1 + 1 > 2?
We’ve been saying for more than a decade that corporate citizenship (corporate and foundation giving and employee engagement) cannot operate in a silo, separate from other corporate functions. It’s hard—if not impossible—to quantify the impact of interdepartmental cooperation on corporate citizenship (CC). But this is one of those times in which qualitative evidence is enough Read more »
Ready to publish your first CSR Report? Here are 5 steps to take before you write a single word
While 85% of S&P 500 companies are already publishing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports, many smaller companies haven’t taken the plunge yet. If that’s you, here’s a quick overview of the important steps to take before you write a single word. Step 1: Know why you are publishing your first report now. Write down all Read more »
“Alexa, Who’s Teaching Kids AI?”
The answer is, not many people. That’s not surprising, given that it’s an emerging field. It’s moving forward fast, though, so there is an urgency to build programs that expose kids to AI and inspire the next generation of AI scientists. Although there are a number of challenges to teaching AI to kids, two big Read more »
“Alexa, What Does AI Mean to Me?”
What do you think about when you hear the term AI? Until recently, I immediately thought of robots and self-driving cars. I’ve been educating myself on AI lately to keep up with the trends and I’ve learned a lot about the ways AI supplements human knowledge to make life better. Who’s on the cutting edge? Read more »
More on STEM Education: Why is it so Hard to Keep Girls in the Pipeline?
Over the years we’ve read a lot of research on why girls in particular lose interest in STEM subjects, dropping out of the pipeline at many points along the way to a career in science, technology, engineering or math. Little kids of either gender are naturally curious and excited to experiment with scientific concepts through Read more »
With STEM Education, Don’t Just Spark an Interest—Light a Fire
For more than a decade, we’ve helped many clients research and select STEM education programs that align with their businesses. Our work has been in different areas of STEM and targeted at different student populations. We’ve read a lot of research on what works and what doesn’t. We’ve evaluated client-supported programs and seen the results Read more »
Pro Bono: It’s Come A Long Way
Although concerned citizens and certain professions, namely attorneys, have been practicing pro bono and skills-based volunteerism for a long time, focusing on them as formal corporate volunteer programs is relatively new. Back in 2006, LBG Associates published a concept paper in conjunction with Deloitte titled, Sharing Our Best with the Rest…Leveraging Intellectual Capital for Social Read more »