News

A core value that helps the bottom line

The Boston Globe
Op Ed by Perri Petricca and Sherry Penney |  May 30, 2009
Read article on line at Boston.com

WITH THE slowed economy, major law firms across the country are now paying first-year associates not to work at their firms, but, rather, to pursue full-time work for a nonprofit for a year. This sophisticated, coordinated Corporate Social Responsibility strategy to recruit and retain talent while making a philanthropic contribution to the community makes good business sense.

In the past, businesses large and small would engage in philanthropy based upon a sense of responsibility to their community. Today, with greater competition for customers and for talent both nationally and internationally, Corporate Social Responsibility is proving to be a powerful tool not only for community engagement but for bottom-line success.

Study: More CEOs say good works boost recruiting

Reprint from the Boston Business Journal | May 29, 2009
By Mary Moore

A report issued by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable shows that Boston-area companies are incorporating social responsibility initiatives in their business plans not just because they are good for the community, but also because they help recruit and retain workers.

This marks a shift in corporate philanthropy since the Roundtable released its Primer for Strategic Corporate Philanthropy in 2000, which noted that corporate responsibility was beginning to evolve from community impact to bottom line impact. The most recent report shows that the evolution, indeed, has taken place.
Boston struggles to maintain its college grads as they move into the workforce, and the Round Table report underscores that philanthropy is a factor making some local companies more attractive to younger workers.

The Roundtable issued the report in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Boston Emerging Leaders Program. A team from the Emerging Leaders Program started working on the report last summer, interviewing 20 Massachusetts companies about their corporate social responsibility activities—predominantly large companies and representing a cross-section of industries.

UMass eyes philanthropy to lure young professionals

Reprint from the Boston Business Journal | October 24, 2008
Philanthropy File | Mary Moore

With Boston struggling to retain young professionals, the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s Emerging Leaders program found that corporate philanthropy might just be the way to keep them here.

Seven teams of Emerging Leaders explored whether civic engagement could be the glue to bond peers their age to the Boston region.

Massachusetts lost 300,000 residents between 2000 and 2007, many of them between 25 and 40 years old, said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

The Emerging Leaders project was not about young professionals gathering on Saturday mornings at a soup kitchen, albeit commendable volunteerism, but rather exploring how they can leverage their executive-level skills and apply them to the nonprofit sector.

The teams each worked on different niche projects with various corporate and nonprofit partners, ranging from The Bank of New York Mellon and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable to Hunt Alternatives and the Catalogue for Philanthropy.

The University Reporter

September 2008, Volume 13, No. 1, page 6

The Center for Collaborative Leadership at UMass Boston has received a grant for $25,000 from State Street Corporation to work on a project to solicit and publish the voices of emerging leaders.

“Why do Young Professionals Stay in Massachusetts?”

March 2, 2008

On Sunday, March 2 Channel 7’s Urban Update featured members of the 2007 Emerging Leaders Program cohort, Sonal Gandhi, BRA; Michael Rawan, Sovereign Bank; Trevor Dunwell, Raytheon; and Director Pat Neilson about the success of the program and about the 2007 group project on “Why Young Professionals Stay in Boston.”

UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program Tops in Europe

June 25, 2007
BostonNow.com

Emerging on top
UMass program takes top honors


The UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program won top honors last week in an international competition featuring leadership development programs. The European Foundation for Management Development in Brussels voted the Emerging Leaders Program as its choice for the “Excellence in Practice” award. EFMD is a global organization devoted to the continuous improvement of management development and has over 600 member organizations from business, academia, and research centers in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Growing Boston’s New Leaders

Reprint from The Boston Business Journal - November 17, 2006
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/11/20/editorial2.html

By Marshall N. Carter

Our region and our city are poised for significant leadership changes as more of our current leaders retire or move on. It is critical that outstanding individuals be ready and willing to take their places. Iconic names from the past, from Richard Hill to John Larkin Thompson, guided our community with distinction and made notable contributions to civic life. But the new leadership will not and should not look like that of old. It must be more inclusive and respond to national and regional demographic changes. It must also be more collaborative—a characteristic not always the norm in Boston. It is clear that building such leadership cannot be left to chance.
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