New Online Catalog for Philanthropy in Washington, DC

Now more than ever, individuals, corporations, and foundations want to make informed choices when they make financial contributions to nonprofit organizations. And people want to volunteer where their time and talents will be put to good use. So how do you know which organizations to support?

A valuable print resource since 2003, the Catalog for Philanthropy: Greater Washington went online tonight. “We offer a wide variety of giving options, including a gift registry and gift cards,” according to Kathy Harman, President and Editor, CFP-DC, and Executive Director, Harman Family Foundation.

Beyond making financial contributions, individuals can have the highest impact in helping to move nonprofits to higher levels of performance by joining the board of directors. And having trained and “matched” hundreds of business executives in finding the right boards of directors to serve on, I strongly advise

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Nike at CGI: Helping Girls and Women Achieve their Potential and Change the World

I have admired Maria Eitel since I met and interviewed her at last year‘s CGI. Talking with her again this year reminded me why. Imagine that just a few years ago, she was asked to create a purpose and a plan for the Nike Foundation. What she presented to the Nike Board of Directors was The Girl Effect– the idea that when you invest in girls, you change the world. Eitel explains: “A girl is the mother of every child who is born into poverty, and a girl will determine the future of the next generation. The Girl Effect: you don’t just transform her life, but the family’s, the community’s, the nation’s.”

As you saw in my Genzyme and Goldman Sachs posts from CGI, and previous posts on firms like Clifford Chance, these are the innovators that identify needs and opportunities. They also consider the resources they can offer to make a meaningful contribution, and build a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy that’s aligned with the corporate mission. They envision the greater potential for the community and the world, and how their company can help make it possible in a way that makes sense for the business.

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Western Union: Remittances Financing Global Economic Development

Here’s a company whose business enables migrants to send money back home just about anywhere in the world–385,000 locations in 200 countries and territories (up from 120,000 locations in 100 countries just 5 years ago), while the company’s philanthropic foundation helps migrants and their families to get an education, get jobs, and build small businesses.

In a conversation with Luella Chavez D’Angelo, President, Western Union Foundation, she told me that “we view migrants as heroes.”  According to D’Angelo, “global migration is as old as history. Who is more heroic than the man or woman who leaves home to endure loneliness and alienation in order to find work in a foreign land to put food on the family’s table back home and help their children have a better future.” (Most of us have the good fortune to be where we are today because a relative did that for us back when.)

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This blog was posted with consent from Fast Company and Alice Korngold.

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert’s views alone.