Month of December , 2006

Facing criticism, Red Cross addresses governance issues.

The American Red Cross announced major governance changes as it seeks to recover from criticism of its performance after Hurricane Katrina and other recent disasters.Critics, led by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), assert the 125-year-old charity labors under an unwieldy organizational structure as well as a culture that discourages criticism.

In late October, the Red Cross released a 156-page report from a special governance committee outlining a wide variety of proposed changes to its structure and practices, from amending its Congressional charter to strengthening its whistleblower processes.

Just days before the November elections, advertisements began popping up on the liberal political website Daily Kos promoting the Blue Fund, described as the “The First No-Load, No Republican Mutual Fund.”

The Fund, actually a pair of funds, takes social investing to a new level, adding what it calls “political factors” to the more commonly used social issues.

How corporations are using technology to focus their philanthropic ventures.

Ever since 9/11, the tsunami of late 2004, and Hurricane Katrina, volunteerism – particularly at corporations – has taken off in this country. But managing the volunteer process can be a drain on human and financial resources. In response, many corporations are turning to technology to increase their responsiveness, communicate corporate policies, and coordinate and track volunteer activities.

An interview with Pamela Passman, Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Microsoft.

Pamela Passman recalls her conversation with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington in the spring of 2002. Passman was new in her position as the software giant’s Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs. The discussion turned to Microsoft’s corporate citizenship initiatives around the world, with the theme being, “We’re doing an awful lot of different stuff.”

Ballmer wasn’t happy. “Steve said to me, ‘I feel like everything we do is pop guns!’” she recounts. “He was very dramatic. ‘Pop! Pop! Pop! It’s all nice, but... If we really focused our resources, we could do something very significant. Go figure it out, Pamela.’” That was quite a challenge...

Earthworks hopes to apply its success with the mining industry to oil, gas, and e-technology.

Founded in 1988 by former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and others as the Mineral Policy Center, the organization was formed to advocate for reforms of mining laws and to help communities facing mineral development proposals. Its efforts have expanded to support communities outside the United States and to reach out to the private sector and increase public advocacy. The name was changed to Earthworks in 2004.

Shining a new spotlight on the field of microfinance.

The award in October of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh and the institution he founded 30 years ago, Grameen Bank, has focused new interest on the field of microfinance, which provides the poor a way out of poverty by lending them small amounts of money for short periods of time without asking for collateral. The loans have allowed millions of low-income people to grow tiny businesses into viable enterprises.

Many advocates for aid to Africa seem to be unaware of how important the private sector is for growth. After 40 years of aid that has climbed into the trillions, Sub-Saharan Africa is poorer now than it was in 1960.

Lack of money isn’t the problem -- the system just doesn’t work. The real question is: Why has Africa been left out of the business revolution?

How to talk to your boss, and others, about corporate responsibility.

Many corporate responsibility officers and their colleagues in top management have been talking past each other, unnecessarily. With a little bit of “translation” the business case for corporate responsibility—that it’s smart business and often good for society—becomes undeniable.

The first step in this dialogue has already been taken. It’s the morphing of the long-held icon, “corporate social responsibility” into corporate responsibility. That development, in itself, has helped many private-sector corporate responsibility officers make progress with both the chief financial officers and chief executive officers who have been uncomfortable with the implications of a “social corporation.”

Is the cost of compliance too high? Lobbyists and business associations are pressuring the SEC and Congress to help ease the cost of complying with SOX.