I gave a presentation today to CAFE Calgary about philanthropy and business.  Canada's charitable sector is a $10 Billion per year industry, so it only makes sense that businesses start looking at engaging in business relationships with charitable organizations.  Attached to this post are copies of the slides that I used, though the conversation did veer in different directions as the people around the table contributed their personal experiences.

The conversation of business and generating social capital has been in the news quite a bit lately with the collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  Social enterprise or entrepreneurship is about putting the social need BEFORE the profit generation.  My friend Ben and I have been looking at different models of social enterprise and how to ensure their viability.  At this point in time, the Canadian government's tax laws have not caught up with the innovation coming out of the business sector around social business models.  I think it is going to be a ground up push to create the change needed to facilitate more social enterprises are successful in not only meeting their social mandates, but also their profit mandates.

As Bill Cook, President of Ethan Allen, pointed out, it is hard to look at charities as businesses.  The idea that philanthropy can have a return goes against the meaning of the word.  My response to this is that we have put an economic equation on the word.  In its original form, philanthropy is the Love of Mankind.  How you show that love differs from culture to culture.  In North America, we have equated this form of brotherly love with financial measurements.  Since that is the case, then should we not carry it through to the end?  If we are making an investment in community, is that not a type of business transaction?  I would say it is, in that case, I would treat the relationship as a business relationship and put an expectation for a return on that investment?

At this time I would like to thank Karen Whiteman and the Board of CAFE Calgary for giving me the opportunity to speak to such an interesting group of people.  Companies represented around the table ranged from Ethan Allen (home furnishings) to Castle Financial to a steel manufacturing company.