Submitted by Paula Chrin

With today marking the first day of Ramadan, a month traditionally associated with fasting and charitable giving for Muslims, any interest in exploring how Muslims in the U.S. are increasingly turning to online philanthropy to give back to their community and satisfy the tenets of Ramadan?

The tradition of giving during Ramadan — one’s zakat and sadaqah — is rooted in the belief of selfless compassion and a redistribution of wealth. Unfortunately, many Muslims in the U.S. struggle with giving money safely, with the assurance that it is going to the right place. For example, Saima Zaman and her friends wrestled with this issue for years. They started “giving circles” in college, during which they would share giving ideas; but this was a limited solution, based personal knowledge rather than a broad, well researched resource.

Inspired to develop a better solution for her community, Saima started working with GlobalGiving in 2006 to create a safe, online Ramadan initiative. Through GlobalGiving, the first online marketplace for philanthropy, Muslim donors can scroll through and select projects run by reputable organizations that satisfy IRS guidelines for international grant making, meet tax-deductible requirements, and follow anti-terrorism laws. GlobalGiving also provides a zakat calculator so donors can determine how much to give during Ramadan. And over the last 2 years, online giving during Ramadan has increased over 80%.

I.O.U.S.A–a documentary premiering August 21 that’s based on an upcoming book of the same name–takes a hard look at America’s growing national debt. A “town hall” discussion following the premiere aims at starting a national dialogue on what we can do to start digging ourselves out of the mountain of debt that’s threatening our nation.

(View the trailer at agorafinancial.com/iousa/movietrailer.html.)

From the press release: “Does watching the news make you shake your head and mutter incredulously, “I can’t believe this s*@#!!!” You’re not alone. As we continue to feel pain at the pump, as the dollar falls, as jobs vanish into the ether, and as the national debt explodes, more and more people are convinced that they’re witnessing the demise of America.

Well, FINALLY, someone is doing something about it–and YOU can get involved. Mark your calendar now for Thursday, August 21. That’s the premiere of I.O.U.S.A., a new documentary that takes an unflinching look at our nation’s current economic crisis.

Following the film, a 45-minute LIVE panel discussion from some of America’s top financial leaders and policy experts–including Warren Buffett–will be simulcast to movie theaters across the country.

Black eye for socially responsible investing

Pax World Management was once a shining example of how socially responsible investing could work. Between 2001 and 2006, it generated returns of more than 14 percent while it stuck to its principles: no stocks of companies with links to weapons, alcohol, bad labor practices and gambling. Now comes news from the New York Post that two Pax funds held up to 8 percent of their portfolios in sin stocks. Gads! The SEC, which has slapped Pax with a fine, said Pax traders would regularly ignore the firm’s in-house warnings and hold banned stocks for as long as six months. These employees are no longer with the company apparently. This is a bit like a vegetarian finding out that the veggie chili he’s been enjoying for years had been laced with Spam bits. Makes you want to spit–and maybe even sue.

[With acknowledgments to Jim Kim of FierceMarkets.com]

For more: here’s the article

Read more about: SRE, socially responsilble investing, Pax World, Labor Practices

Carbon is just the tip of the iceberg” Jeffrey Hittner, corporate social responsibility leader for IBM Global Business Services, told VNN’s Laurance Allen as we discussed IBM’s new consulting offerings designed to improve their clients’ competitive position by being greener and more ethical.

Clearly the ability of corporations to meet today’s higher expectations has become critical, people are watching company behavior more closely than ever on a whole range of issues – the environment, fair wages and workplace safety, international trade, product safety and philanthropy. Empowered by the Internet, people are equipped or organize and act quickly to reward or punish brands depending on what they observe – deciding what to buy, who to work for, where to invest, and how business should be regulated.

I asked Jeffrey how IBM went about setting their corporate priorities in this broad arena. He explained that IBM Global Business Services used internally developed Jam Event methodology to prepare, market and host a 72-hour real-time discussion around global issues, ideas and best practices. “This Jam Event is like a Wiki combined with Facebook and put on steroids,” he explained. And how did it come into being? “It was initially developed as a ‘virtual supplier auditing’ application for a client case study.”

Then more than 50,000 IBM employees took part in an online jam-session, where the value of each employee’s role in innovation crystallized into a need for global action. IBM responded by exploring a new approach to suggestion boxes, based on the jam format, IBM’s dedication to open collaborative innovation and an understanding of idea-rich communities. All this informed IBM’s $100 million Big Green Innovations initiative.

The IBM Big Green Innovations team applies advanced materials science, physics, modeling tools, materials science, physics, and integration expertise to address emerging environmental management opportunities.

By collaborating with clients that have a global presence in water and energy related problems they can bring innovative perspectives that reach across ecosystems to solve problems none of us could have solved individually.

Today IBM ranks its global priorities and opportunities in this order:

• Advanced Water Management — encompasses a broad agenda from availability and quality to distribution and consumption. Our technology and expertise can help water utilities, agencies, and private industry improve water quality and water system performance. By collaborating with clients to provide them more accurate and timelier data on water operations, IBM can help clients proactively manage provisioning for human, industrial, and agricultural consumption leveraging tools like IBM Deep Thunder. Understanding weather impact on water management can help optimize the management of complex water environments.IBM will also work with organizations to develop nanotechnology-based water filtration systems and other products that address the challenge of providing potable water in a world where water is becoming a scarce resource.

· Alternative Energy - We offer integrated solutions to help utilities, enterprises, and governments maximize the efficiency and sustainability of energy generation, transmission, and distribution. Solutions include decision support for renewable energy and business processes, overall management of an organization’s impact on climate change, and the impact of climate change on an organization’s operations. An example of this is Intelligent Utility Network.

· Carbon Management — we have the expertise to support integrated solutions that can help clients minimize the carbon implications footprint of companies’ operations and supply chains. Our set of tools and services reflects our view that for maximum effectiveness, carbon management should be integrated with the day-to-day management of other business variables such as inventory, customer service and cost so you can experience the double benefit of reduced carbon and reduced cost or improved process performance.

· Computational Modeling — We have computational modeling, data analysis, visualization and business/process modeling, and analytics associated with improving global environmental health in areas such as weather, climate, hydrology, pollution, and pandemics.

By taking their license to operate beyond Milton Friedman’s single stakeholder definition of the 1970’s, IBM is walking the talk on global challenges. This carefully crafted and bold positioning now allows their consulting arm to benefit by offering new services through their recently announced ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Benchmarking Utility.’

This helps clients assess:

– Whether they’re currently treating CSR as an expense or an investment;
– The effectiveness of their environmental policies, labor practices, regulatory compliance, corporate values, and other CSR-related activities, and where they may have gaps;
– How well they engage customers and other stakeholders to understand their concerns and to communicate CSR performance.

The benchmarking utility is based on data from a survey by IBM of c-level executives at more than 250 companies worldwide. The study, titled “Attaining Sustainable Growth through Corporate Social Responsibility,” shows that 68 percent of the executives surveyed see CSR as an opportunity to grow revenue and 54 percent believe it gives them a competitive advantage.
But the report also shows some significant gaps in how companies are approaching CSR – more than three quarters of the executives surveyed admitted they don’t understand their customers’ concerns about CSR, and only 17 percent are even asking them. This indicates that many companies need to analyze and improve their CSR practices to ensure they line up with what customers and other key stakeholders expect.

In another survey conducted by IBM of more than 1,100 CEOs worldwide, the majority of respondents said they plan to increase their investments in CSR activities by 25 percent over the next three years. The key for them is to ensure they are investing in the right programs, policies and practices to meet the expectations of their stakeholders, and that is what these new consulting offerings from IBM are designed to help them do.

Based on what the benchmarking utility reveals about a client, IBM can use its CSR Strategy Assessment and Roadmap offering to help it improve its business processes and operations, address any shortcomings, and integrate CSR into its overall strategies and objectives.

IBM can then assist clients in a range of CSR areas, including:
– Carbon footprint analysis and management;
– Environmental procurement;
– CSR policy development and monitoring for suppliers;
– “Green” data center;
– Information sharing and engagement with customers, shareholders, regulators
and advocacy groups;
– Linking philanthropy to corporate strategy;
– Diversity and labor practices;
– Engagement with employees on CSR.

As Jeffrey Hittner stressed during our interview; approached as an opportunity and done in the right way, improving corporate social responsibility can grow revenue and market share.

Jeff Hittner is the Corporate Social Responsibility Leader for the IBM Institute for Business Value. He works with a range of industries and clients to address the emerging role of corporate social responsibility in core business strategies. He can be reached at jhittner@us.ibm.com.

ProxyDemocracy provides a set of tools to help investors use their voting power to produce positive changes in the companies they own.

Checkout this brilliantly conceived website; it is a nonprofit, nonpartisan project supported by foundations that are themselves interested in being responsible investors…… the founder Andrew Eggers, is also a doctoral student in Harvard University’s Department of Government.

“I just about stood up and cheered when I saw this site. My hope is that investors who are trying to make up their mind between one fund and another will use this.”
Nell Minow, co-founder of The Corporate Library

The Environmental Defense Fund has produced a new report highlighting processes, products, and technologies that are making the biz world more eco-friendly. The green group’s Innovations Review 2008 draws attention to developments good for both business and the environment. The report focuses specifically on innovations on the cusp: not yet widely implemented, but not still in the R&D phase. So what’s on the horizon? Solar-power purchase agreements in the real-estate biz, data systems that help shipping fleets reach maximum efficiency, technological advances in teleconferencing, and much, much more.

source: GreenBiz
straight to the report: Innovations Review 2008

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Launches Initiative with The Bridge Fund to Support Work on the Ground in Sichuan Province.

New York, NY, May 22, 2008 – In the face of unspeakable destruction and untold human tragedy caused by the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province of China, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors today announced that it is coordinating a donor appeal through The Bridge Fund, one of its special projects that has developed long-standing relationships with local and national Chinese charitable organizations since its establishment 12 years ago.

Working in close coordination with China Charity Federation, Sichuan International Friendship Association and the Sichuan Red Cross, the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors initiative – The Bridge Fund Sichuan Earthquake Compassion Fund – will assist approximately 100,000 people affected by the earthquake over a 12-month period. The fund will meet immediate needs in the region by providing critical supplies, including food, drinking water, tents, quilts, warm clothes, jerry cans, kitchen sets, illuminating equipment and medical services, including disease control.

The Bridge Fund is well situated to work effectively and swiftly on the ground having collaborated extensively with organizations based in Sichuan Province, including Chengdu, Aba Prefecture and Ganzi Prefecture, according to Melissa Berman, President and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

 “The Bridge Fund will make use of its strong, deeply rooted relationships with non-governmental organizations based in Sichuan Province, providing a unique opportunity for donors who want the assurance that their contributions will have a direct impact and bring immediate relief to those who are undergoing such suffering,” Berman said. 

Over the years, The Bridge Fund has worked with local partners in the most remote and hardest to reach areas of the region supporting healthcare, education, community development, cultural heritage preservation and environmental conservation.

“Our heart goes out to all the people who have been affected by this catastrophe, which has so devastated the vibrant communities that have been part of our lives for many years,” said Monica Garry, Executive Director of the Bridge Fund. “We hope that our work and familiarity in the region will help us anticipate and meet the needs of those who are suffering.”

Donations provided through the fund will aim to meet the initial appeal from the International Red Cross to raise $19.3 million dollars for the benefit of the Red Cross Society of China relief efforts. Contributions from the special fund will also be targeted to support a second phase of community rebuilding efforts, especially in the remote areas of Aba Prefecture to assist Chinese and Tibetans who have been injured, have lost their jobs and homes.

Donations may be made to:

The Bridge Fund Sichuan Earthquake Compassion Fund

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

6 West 48^th Street, 10^th floor

New York, NY 10036

About Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (www.rockpa.org) is an independent, nonprofit service that develops and manages effective giving programs for individuals, families, foundations and trusts. In 2007, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors advised on more than $165 million in giving in 30 countries. Headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, it traces its antecedents to John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who in 1891 began to professionally manage philanthropy “as if it were a business.” He set the style of family giving by specifying that grants would be used “for the well-being of people throughout the world.” Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors also includes The Philanthropic Collaborative, a special charitable gift fund vehicle managed solely as a service to clients. 

About The Bridge Fund

The Bridge Fund (www.bridgefund.org), established in 1996, strives to fulfill its mission of promoting sustainable economic development, environmental conservation and cultural heritage preservation in Tibetan communities in China. Its priority is to assist the most disadvantaged of these communities, which lack or have limited access to economic opportunities, technical skills, education, and health care. Current programs are focused on education, healthcare, cultural preservation, business, environment and community development.

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

So say Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the May issue of Vanity Fair where their report by details Monsanto’s environmental legacy and poor treatment of farmers

Monsanto responds:

[DOC] Monsanto’s letter to Vanity Fair

[DOC] Monsanto letter to Resource Centre

Source: http://www.business-humanrights.org/Home

This new report, prepared by Chris Deri’s CSR practice group at Edelman, examines the implications of climate change regulation for business and the role of communications in shaping business success amid an uncertain and ever-changing landscape. The report is available at http://www.edelman.com/expertise/practices/csr/ and can be downloaded directly at: http://www.edelman.com/expertise/practices/csr/documents/Edelman_Bali_Report_031108.pdf

Using the international climate change conference that took place in Bali in December 2007 as a starting point, the report seeks to provide a succinct account of leading international efforts to address climate change, while providing a forward looking perspective on the challenges and opportunities that increased regulatory efforts will pose for a range of companies and industries.

Specifically, from a communications and public affairs perspective, we also try to address:

§ What impact will increased climate change regulation have on U.S. policy?

§ How is the climate change communications landscape changing?

§ What is the new role of business in shaping climate change regulation?

§ How will business need to craft its position on climate change?

§ What are the implications of the Bali Conference for U.S. business?

§ How can multinationals prepare to seize public relations advantages?

Regulating greenhouse gases will generate a lot of money. Who should get it?

A climate-change bill that has widespread support as it heads to the Senate floor will create an estimated $150 billion of new assets in the first year it takes effect. Between now and 2050, regulating greenhouse gases could easily generate $3 trillion worth in value in the United States.

Should that value go to utility companies, electricity customers who will face rising rates, government investments in new technology or tax cuts? Or should it be returned to all Americans?

By Marc Gunther, senior writer at Fortune:

 http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/14/news/economy/climate_change_bill.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008051507