Submit Questions: Corporate Philanthropy in Turbulent Times

With the economy on everyone's minds, our annual "Corporate Philanthropy Trends" program is going to focus specifically on how the current state of the economy is impacting corporate philanthropy. This philanthropy forum, co-sponsored with the San Francisco Business Times and the Development Executives Roundtable, featuring regional corporate philanthropy trends has become something of an annual tradition. But this year the stakes have been raised as all of us in the nonprofit sector are attuned to the ongoing economic woes facing the nation. Since we last held this forum a year ago we have seen companies that were institutions in their fields fail including banking, insurance, legal, and retail institutions. In a field that relies on the willingness of others to share their good fortune, we do rely on fortunes being made rather than lost. This timely session will explore the questions that are on many of our minds about the state of the economy and the fallout for philanthropy.

The program, Corporate Philanthropy in Turbulent Economic Times, will happen on November 14th from 12-2pm.  The session will feature representatives from our region's banking and technology industries discussing current philanthropic strategies, giving forecasts for 2009 and beyond, and look back to how our region's nonprofits and corporate philanthropy were impacted during the dot com collapse at the beginning of the decade.  Panelists include representatives from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Intel, and Cisco Foundation.

I am in the process of planning the list of questions for the panel and encourage you to submit suggestions for questions that you would like asked of our panel of corporate philanthropy colleagues.  I know we have inquiring minds out there--please submit your questions now for consideration now by posting to our blog.

Comments

[patrick O'Heffernan]

Does the shrinking economy mean that requests to corporate foundations will need even more explicit PR benefits to be successful, or that regardless of the value-added, the budgets are just smaller and the grants fewer - or are both true?

[Tony Adessa]

Apart from staying cool, calm, and collected, what strategy would you advise pursuing? For example, should nonprofits apply before year-end, or wait until January, or until the stock market turns around, or...? And, should the amount requested be the same as it would have been before the economy tanked, or a bit more, or a bit less?

[Petra Fitch]

It appears that corporate giving, particularly in the banking sector, will be more focused on "neighborhood preservation" programs, helping to avoid foreclosures, etc. Do you think this will have a significant impact on all other nonprofit areas to receive funding?

[Yasmeen Al-Farouk]

Will any of the Corporations represented receive bailout or rescue funds and if yes, will any of the funds be used to benefit the community.

[Kate Hamilton]

How can non-profits position their work in a way that highlights the direct benefits of involvement to corporations? How will corporations' motivations to give be impacted by the depressed economy?