Tomorrow's program featuring the top five corporate philanthropists in the Bay Area is going to focus specifically on how the current state of the economy is impacting corporate philanthropy and what lies ahead for 2010. 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. Since we last held this forum a year ago we have continued to see corporations shrink, merge or disappear from the landscape altogether, and of course nonprofits are facing similar challenges. 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, The State of Corporate Giving in the Bay Area, will happen tomorrow from 12-2pm. The session will feature representatives from the top five ranked corporate philanthropists in the Bay Area taken from the San Francisco Business Times' annual list. Panelists will discuss current philanthropic strategies, giving forecasts for 2010 and beyond, and how corporate philanthropy responds during tough economic times. Panelists include representatives from AT&T, Wells Fargo, Chevron, Bank of America, and Safeway.
I invite 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.
I understand many corporations select target areas to invest their non-profit giving. How do you balance the community and employee interests in giving with that corporate goal (assuming they are different)? In other words, how important is the community and employee influence in corporate giving?
Posted by: Judith | November 12, 2009 at 08:22 PM
How do employees put forth non-profit organizations for consideration and what is the internal review process?
Posted by: Judith C | November 13, 2009 at 07:23 AM
Questions for the 11/13 program:
What are they looking for in terms of reporting and what new guidelines and/or formats do they want?
What about cause-related marketing? Does that continue to be a good strategy for them in choosing partnering organizations?
What do they consider effective grant making? How will they measure success? Will it be through the number of people helped, change of behavior, what measurements of change have they found to be the most beneficial for determining grantee success.
Any money going to capital campaigns in the future?
Posted by: Emma Lee Twitchell | November 13, 2009 at 12:08 PM
What is the outlook for corporate giving in 2010? What should we be doing now to position ourselves for corporate gifts as the economy improves?
Posted by: lana dalberg | November 13, 2009 at 02:16 PM