Doing Good by Doing What You're Good At

courtesy NONDC

When it comes to doing good, sometimes the hardest part is choosing the right idea. But when a plan to tackle a social problem aligns with a business interest, things start clicking, Margaret Coady, director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), told USA Today earlier this year.

It also works that way when an association or organization lines up its public-service projects at the "sweet spots" where their own areas of expertise intersection with social needs. A perfect example was the decision by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to create a project that would address the rebuilding of post-Katrina New Orleans, the site of AIA's 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition.

Knowing the needs of New Orleans, "we can't not do something," Joel Mills, director of AIA's Center for Communities by Design, told Executive Editor Chris Durso, who wrote about the project for Convene. (The project outline is available here.)

Another great example is the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) decade-long commitment to building safe, accessible playgrounds in the cities where they hold their annual meetings. It resonates with AAOS members, public relations director Sandra Gordon told me, because  orthopedic surgeons have first-hand experience with injuries that children can suffer on unsafe playground equipment.

Nearly half of all conferences now include volunteer experiences, according to research conducted at the University of Florida. Just think of all that could be done, and the rewarding experiences that could be created for meeting attendees, if conference-related projects unleashed the full talents of their members.

The Value of Values

Fast Company has a nifty chart in its March issue, comparing Hulu and Netflix. I read it with interest — my nephews love Hulu — but it would take a lot to lure me away from Netflix. Here’s why:

In 2003, a colleague was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and took immediate medical leave for treatment. In the office, we tried to think of any and all ways we could help: James loved movies, so we signed him up for the biggest monthly package Netflix offered, so he always had a stack of new movies to watch. To our great sorrow, James succumbed to the disease seven months later. When I eventually remembered to cancel the Netflix subscription, the final statement showed that several discs had not been returned.

I couldn’t see calling James’ grieving partner to ask about the DVDs, so I called Netflix to explain why I would need to pay the replacement costs. Their reply was immediate: “Don’t worry about it,” the Netflix representative said. “We’ll take care of it. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

It was an unexpectedly kind response that came at a hard time. And from then on, I began to think about Netflix, not so much as the huge corporation that it is, but as a place where real people, with values I admire, work. Nothing — not even the occasional flurry of bad publicity — has changed my mind about the company in the years since then.

It made me curious about company policy and I wasn’t surprised when I found a slide presentation Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings created about what he calls Netflix’s “Freedom and Responsibility Culture.” The first of seven points is: “Values are What We Value.”

"Values" could be said to be the tie that binds together the stories in our new “Giving Back” series, which highlights ways that organizations and companies demonstrate their commitment to, not just the bottom line, but to the local and global community. (This month we talked to hotel chefs who had installed beehives on their properties' roofs, to simultaneously boost the bee population and harvest homegrown honey for their kitchens.)

Know of any interesting or innovative ways that individuals or organizations are giving tangible expression to the greater social good and community and sustainablity? Please share.