As recently as ten years ago, "corporate philanthropy" generally consisted of writing a cheque for a needy organization. A dramatic transformation has taken place and continues to change the way companies look at their relationship to the communities where they and their employees live and work. This is driven by the changing expectations of their role and responsibility held by their customers, their employees and their other stakeholders. Globalization of the market place adds another level of complexity to decisions about who the "customer" is and what their expectations are. Increased competition for talent means that employees need to be attracted, recruited and retained through means that engage both their minds and their hearts. The company's community investment strategy can be a critical tool in generating a win-win-win situation that meets the company's need to be a good corporate citizen, engages the employees' hearts and minds by aligning the company's core business with its philanthropy, and provides much needed community support. Given our extensive experience in this area, we start our work by first really understanding the company's business and its culture/context. We then usually work with the senior management team to develop a sense of the common shared agenda and the underlying values for the community investment work. We help connect this to the external environment and trends, issues and opportunities in the sector that resonates for them.
Maple Leaf is Canada's leading provider of fresh and prepared meats and consumer foods. Building on the company's strong history of community support and its passion for food, we helped to develop an expanded philanthropic strategy that recognized the global nature of their markets, employees and communities. Working with a steering committee, we identified various options for expanding the community investment program and related resourcing requirements. We helped create a framework that engaged employees through a local community based program and also more systemic support around the issue of hunger in a broader context.