Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick just published Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun. It is an excellent primer on values-driven firms, complete with lists of companies that support NPOs as part of their mission.

Read Patrick O’Heffernan’s review of the book, and listen to his interview podcast with Mal Warwick.

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Should you raise funds from businesses? If yes, how should you proceed? Patrick O’Heffernan, fundraising expert, helps you navigate the triple bottom line world.

Many non-profits prefer not to take corporate money. They point at compromises companies demand from grantees, or corporations that use an NPO’s good name to cover some misdeeds. They simply refuse to enter into a world where profit, not social welfare, is the first goal.

But all of that can be avoided and a new source of revenue tapped by working with values-driven businesses – companies that measure success with a triple bottom line of community, planet and profits.

Values-driven companies avoid the moral problems of other firms, and they often give away a portion of their profits to NPOs and provide products, services, facilities, loaned executives, training and advertising as part of their mission.

So how do you approach them, especially if you have no experience with businesses?

First, understand the company’s values and mission. Know what is important to the company. Does it focus on the environment, the community where their stores or factories are located, HIV prevention, or energy conservation? Read their materials to see if your mission fits with theirs.

Second, understand the company’s grant-making process. Does it want a business plan instead of a regular proposal? Find out who is part of the decision-making process: employees, customers, senior-level executives, the CEO? Does the company make “investments” that require a seat on your board like venture capital firms often do, or does it provide products, services and facilities, but expect you to find cash?

Third, understand how the company measures success. Many businesses want more quantitative metrics than most foundations require. NPOs are rarely used to providing ROI (“return on investment”) reports or cash and benefit flow projections. Be ready to show you have thought through your project, including ways of measuring and growing its success that match the firm’s expectations.

Let us know your experience with fund raising from values driven businesses. Join the forum here.

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jun 5, 2006 12:07 pm (#1 Total: 11)


there are many sources of contacts for these kinds of companies. the book lists many in its appendix. also check business for social responsibility

tutormentor - Jun 10, 2006 8:32 am (#2 Total: 11)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


Patrick,

Thanks for hosting this discussion. If you know of some non profits that are turning down business donations, please encourage those groups to have the business contact me. I'll take it.

I've not had a chance to read the book about values driven businesses, but have you read Good to Great & the Social Sector by Jim Collins?

If so, how do values driven companies support the process of growing great social sector organizations? I think there's a lot of micromanaging being attempted that most businesses would not allow their donors/customers to do to them.

I'm still looking for an on-line meeting places where the decision makers in values driven businesses are connecting with the leaders of social sector organizations and using these as the place where donor/investor commitments get made.

Dan

Arlin Pauler - Jun 12, 2006 8:41 am (#3 Total: 11)
Humanistic Business Philosopher and Consultant


What does it mean that there has been only one post for this topic? Is this because most everyone in the social values sector has already all the funding and other resources they need? Am I and the author the only ones that think there is still something to be gained by bridging the gap between the people of social causes and the business community?

I think the joining forces of “profit” and “not for profit” interests is the key to the future of the Well Being industry. In fact, it may be the key to the survival of mankind. (Well Being industry is the business of propagating Well Being)

Come on, share your thoughts. Together we can make more of the difference we really want to make. I think the Well Being of us all needs us to engage the possibilities in this topic.

Arlin http://www.highpointconsulting.net/

Attachments:

Love Is Good Buisness 2005.doc (11 KB)

kconnellspace - Jun 13, 2006 8:23 am (#4 Total: 11)
space solutions of benefit to humanity


I remember well, when working with (then) Gov Jerry Brown enabled public private startups in my 20's, a reluctance to work with corporate money.

As a mid life boomer, and after 20 years of working with NASA, it is clear to me that this sort of selectively in our era, is a luxury that neither the social "E" nor the target community/customer can afford, nor should they. By taking this stance, one is effectively shunning access to capital markets, and the ability to scale up.

I am new to these forums, so I don't know if this is appropriate, but I am proposing a new market sector (seem subject title) and within this category, a multi-sector consortium new start to create new solutions to harden homes in the hurricane zones, with help from NASA Ames. The Project is dubbed Category eXploration.

I am seeking assistance is identification of champion, and angel capital-and corporate engagement-and project to start-up coaching and consulting, and co-venturing with us.

In fact, in order to work with NASA and other Federal agencies these days, external investors is sometimes requirement. Please see http://thecwgroup.com for more information about me, with respect to space work we have done, and references to our community economic development career prior. I welcome your thoughts on this intranet, and/or inquiries and interest to my email, below. Thanks, Kathleen Connell The Connell Whittaker Group, LLC "Space Solutions of Benefit to Humanity" kconnell@thecwgroup.com

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jun 13, 2006 8:39 am (#5 Total: 11)


I hve been away at the YearlyKos meeting of bloggers in Las Vegas (see my blog on it at Patrick O on the eddge). Konnellspace, so you worked for Jerry Brown. So Did I. I was in OPR, the Energy Commission, and Labor. Where were you located?

RE: The startup. It is appropriate and I would check out the Social Venture Network, http://www.svn.org/, as a place to start. This is a great idea and one that you should connect to global warming if it is factual

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jun 13, 2006 8:47 am (#6 Total: 11)


I have not read it; my wife has it now. How do values driven companies support the process of growing great social sector organizations? I think Mal Warwick has some of those answers in his book, but more specifically, I think forming partnerships with npos. One example is Goodstrom, a for-profit comapny that provides turnkey, on-line manufacturing and sales service to NPOs. GoodStorm's founder, Yobie Benjamin, is a investor who insists on good ROI, but he has designed a business that can provide any NPO with SWAG products and online sales and follow through....and make money for both of them. Check them out at www.goodstorm.com

Let me check if this site work as an on-line meeting places for values driven businesses and social sector organizations. Maybe we could set up a secondary page...I will ask Dan

Patrick O'Heffernan - Jun 13, 2006 8:49 am (#7 Total: 11)


well, we have a few more posts. perhaps if I coauld cross-post with SVN, we could generate more interest. I love the term "Well Being Industtry." We need more of that

Arlin Pauler - Jun 13, 2006 11:23 am (#8 Total: 11)
Humanistic Business Philosopher and Consultant


There's more where that came from. Creating Well Being is not mutually exclusive to the affairs of business. It is a matter of emphasis of purpose. I think there is a science to Well Being that can draw on business principles to be more fully applied. Thus the idea of the business of creating Well Being - Well Being Industry. It seems to me that raising funds from values-driven businesses is directly related to doing this. What do the rest of you think?

On a personal note: As a social philosopher and entrepreneur I have studied and lived the relationship between business and Well Being since 1971. This has been the kind of thing where "It" has me more than I have "It". I just keep seeing more and more about the connection between business and Well Being. (As of now, even survival may hang in the balance of getting this straight) My work has been, and continues to be, the creation of a language to articular what I see and to define actions with traction that will move us all, Humanity, forward in our quest to live Life fully - The Human Spirit's quest for Well Being.

My current work as a Business Development Consultant applies much of what I have to offer. However, I'm looking for colleagues with whom I can make a bigger difference by exploring other ways to make my knowledge and experience more available to those that can benefit from it. I would welcome the opportunity to hear from anyone interested in exploring this possibility.

Have a fun and rewarding day, Arlin.

tutormentor - Jun 13, 2006 12:58 pm (#9 Total: 11)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


I attended a policy briefing at the Union League Club in Chicago this morning. As with most forums I attend now days, I left with a wish that the comments of panelist in such forums could be topics for on-line discussions like this. That way the important ideas could be saved and shared and the people who attended the forum would be more able to interact with each other, the panelist, and actually do something to solve the problems being discussed.

In this case, here were some issues that were mentioned

shortage of high level IT workers to support business growth

continued loss of manufacturing jobs in region

40% of city, largely the Black South Side, has not benefited from gentrification due to high crime and poor schools

suburbs becoming more like inner city

pockets of poverty just being pushed around region and outside of social services infrastructure needed to support them

census data show population decline

census data shows Illinois has high number of older workers set to retire, too few ready-to-work replacements

American Community Survey, done by census bureau, will make updates for big cities available each year, not every 10 years

Forbes article rates Illinois 48th or 49th in an important business health indicator

Funding for education based on property tax, making funding unequal

Business resists changing tax strategy because of gov't waste, and impact on drawing new business to region

Region has something like 220 local government units and no central conviening place for business leaders to collect and create policy

Too few dollars for education; schools compete with non profits for donor dollar, meaning non school programs have even more difficulty finding funding

NO NEW TAXES

This is a stalemate. Improving the education system to create more high qualified workers will take years, if it every happens at all. Yet, Chicago business is competing globally for high quality workers and for customers.

This is a Perfect Storm. It's got to motivate some CEOs to reach outside the box and into the internet for ideas, collaboration and strategies that improve the workforce, and help them survive.

Where are the meeting places on the internet where these CEOs and their think tanks will coverge?

Can it be in portals like this?

InvestedInterests - Jun 13, 2006 5:11 pm (#10 Total: 11)


My name is Brandon Small and I work at an investment advisory firm in San Francisco - Invested Interests.com. We are younger advisors specializing in delivering relevant investments to our generation. Our website has many useful tools that allows anyone to look at their current mutual fund holdings and perform screens for various social issues. In a nutshell, we are interested in pushing social investing to a mainstream market that is interested in doing well and doing good. We understand the mentality of this new investing generation and are positioning ourselves to be the 'go-to' company providing these services.

When we work with non-profits, we really take their investing to a new level. We create and maintain a Social Investment Policy Statement - much like the statements used by large pension funds and endowments. In addition, we customize the screens used in selecting their investments to incorporate their stated mission. This allows a non-profit to offer a product and service to their employees and membership that is unique and consistent with their values. The groups we are working with really like this ability to do what larger institutions are doing on a smaller scale.

We have a two programs in place to compensate our non-profit clients. First, and easiest, is that we pledge 10% of our Net Profits to our non-profit clients. This comes in the form of simple check at the end of the year. The second, and more interesting - if not more complicated, is a program we had established to compensate non-profit clients for new business. Initially, we pledged funds to an organization for each new investor. However, this has not been as successful as we had thought - for various reasons.

Our next plan is to offer sponsorship funds to an organization for gathering members for a informational seminar on social investing, or retirement planning, etc. Any ideas?

What does a non-profit really need from an investment advisor? Should we even be providing funds to our clients at the end of each year, or should we concentrate on providing more service and expertise to them as concerns their social investments?

I can't help but think that we need to keep our business simple, do you think this model or a slight derivation of it will work within the non-profit community?

Thanks, Brandon Small

tutormentor - Jun 14, 2006 9:01 am (#11 Total: 11)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


With the Baby Boomer generation beginning to transfer about $40 billion in wealth to the next generation, I cannot understand why more of the big investment firms are not thinking the way Brandon is.

I'm sure that big companies like Schwab, Merril Lynch, etc. do offer all sorts of financial planning services, but I don't see on their web site an attempt to encourage more investors to become social investors, with links to services that would support this.

Thus, I think you've got a great idea. Maybe I'm biased because as a non profit, this seems to offer the potential for more consistent funding.

I encourage you to add a link to your site in the business section of the LINKS library at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org.