2024 Corporate Philanthropy Institute

Companies are trying to navigate through, around, and over a myriad of external and internal challenges which are impacting their giving and commitment to support the most marginalized communities. Our opening panel will explore those challenges and the operating landscape for companies and their philanthropy. It will talk about issues like ESG & DEI, highlight expectations of employees and the public; share how companies are responding and advancing their work and offer strategies for how to move forward expectation.

This powerhouse panel of current and former leaders in corporate social impact will share their experience, their truth, expertise, insights, and inspiration as we look to the future.

As the year comes to a close and an election is imminent it’s an opportunity to take stock on how the operating environment for companies has changed and our work has had to evolve in response. This panel of leaders in the field will both respond to the insights of our opening panel and highlight how they are pursuing their work in light of changing expectations, new pressures, and a desire to have impact. They will highlight strategies, initiatives, and programs that thread the needle and meet community needs.

A workshop to empower corporate changemakers to identify and reduce barriers to embedding social impact in the business.

Corporate changemakers—i.e., leaders of CSR, Sustainability, Corporate Foundations, Corporate Purpose, DEI—who are responsible for driving social impact and embedding it in the core business, know that their social impact is limited without the support of business.

Corporate changemakers are faced with a confluence of new stakeholders, shifting corporate cultures, limited positional power, and emerging socio-economic and political factors. These contextual factors, known and unknown, can derail the best-laid plans and aspired outcomes. Without partnerships and resources to navigate these unexpected challenges, it can be difficult to successfully align on, expand, and deliver a social impact strategy that aligns with business strategy.

Partnering with corporate leaders for over two decades, FSG has learned what it takes for a siloed changemaker to break through such interferences—the intangible forces thwarting progress—and become a strategic partner in accelerating business goals and advancing purpose.

During this two-hour learning lab, FSG leaders Lakshmi Iyer and Clare Schroder will offer a framework that will help leaders identify seen and unseen barriers to making progress, as well as offer a unique peer-to-peer learning experience. We hope this experience will propel leaders to realize the potential of their social impact strategies and address barriers along the way.

AI is in our news feeds, social media, daily conversations, and all around it seems. Many of us are impacted directly because it’s part of our company’s focus or even its central enterprise. But what does AI mean to our work as funders, CSR professionals, and social impact changemakers? What are the opportunities and challenges of AI in partnerships? What do we really need to know as AI becomes commonplace?

This breakout will give into these questions and discuss the evolving role of grantmakers. As these changes occur and nonprofits seek to increase their knowledge about tools, funders can support communities by: elevating the impact of AI on community issues, learn about the risk and opportunities, and develop new strategies and programs. We’ll also explore how AI tools can be helpful in your own strategy, planning, and daily work.

We spend a lot of time trying to understand whether our work, our investment in community, is making a difference. We wring our hands over the impact of a particular grant. Worry about how we can assess that impact without overtaxing grantees and damaging our relationships. And how can we say our company is responsible for a particular outcome or change when we might be one of many contributors? The ongoing conundrum of attribution vs contribution haunts us all!

It’s also important to be cognizant about what we’re learning from the work in communities. Where we’re having success, impact or even failures. It will help us be a better grantmaker and partner and inform our long-term strategy telling us whether we need to double-down, readjust or move in a different direction.

These are just some of the questions we’ll grapple with during this discussion where we’ll highlight the work our panelists are doing to better understand the impact of their giving, talk about tools and strategies utilized by the field, and leverage the knowledge in the room.

What will the election, ongoing challenges to democracy, and recent court decisions mean to our communities? How will these impact companies and corporate philanthropy/CSR? How might it then impact funding practices? What will we need to take on together post-election?

These questions will be at the center of conversation when we come together. Our expert panel deeply understands what these changes could mean and will share insights for the future of philanthropic giving.