Did you know that February 22 is now International Corporate Philanthropy Day?
I for one did not. I was scanning a number of newspapers and stumbled upon this fact in the San Francisco Chronicle which was primarily telling the story about all the who's who that showed up to celebrate the day but more importantly talk about empowering women. Good topic, nice article.
But what is this International Corporate Philanthropy Day. According to the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy(CECP),
International Corporate Philanthropy Day is a two year-old opportunity to:
- Tell your company’s philanthropy story on an internationally recognized day.
- Further engage senior management, employees, and nonprofit partners in your giving programs.
- Raise awareness of the important role of corporate philanthropy in fostering stronger relationships across sectors.
- Publicize your company’s philanthropic initiatives, benefiting from the added media interest.
- Enhance relationships with peers and thought leaders in the corporate giving community.
So, it seems like the reason I would not have heard about this event is that it's really for the members - to encourage their philanthropic work. That's a good thing I believe. And, of course there's a bit of marketing benefit -- both internal and external. Corporate philanthropy people are faced with the constant challenge of making the case for their efforts internally. After all, profits do come first for shareholders and philanthropy isn't a profit-making activity - -is it?
All that said, seems like Corporate Philanthropy Day would be an excellent day for those who are socially minded to reinforce that corporate philanthropy is a good thing but for sure, only one illustration of being a responsible citizen of the world. Beyond that of course are the basics like offering fair wages, avoiding doing bad things to employees and/or not hiring children -- you know, stuff like that. And then there's ensuring the minimal environmental harm. Oh, and what about letting individual citizens have a say in their political systems (versus heavy financed lobbying).
Corporate Philanthropy is certainly important but corporations, especially those who are trans-national, have a whole lot more responsibilities and when they exercise these, I'd be very excited about a Good Corporate Citizen Day.