Workshops

Presenters: Paula Baker, VP Global Community Initiatives; VP, IBM International Foundation and Eileen Sweeney, Director, Corporate and Foundation Philanthropic Relations, Motorola, Inc.  

As companies extend philanthropic programs to their worldwide locations and seek to increase positive brand awareness in emerging markets, more corporate community involvement and CSR executives are seeking best practices for implementation and guidance. This session will provide an overview of two well-established global programs, why they work and key factors to be considered throughout the development process.

Presenters: Priscilla McLane Plumb, Director of HP Global Social Investment Strategic Grantmaking and Employee Giving, Hewlett-Packard and Brian Glade, Vice President of International Programs, Society for Human Resource Management

Presenters: Deidre Lind, Executive Director, Mattel Children’s Foundation and Mattel Philanthropy Programs and Steve Cook, VP, Community Relations, The Men’s Wearhouse

Corporate community relations professionals have always known that partnerships are a vital ingredient to successful community programs. Now more than ever companies are seeking strategically focused collaborative programs that reach their targeted audience and have a measurable impact on their primary cause. This session will feature outstanding programs and provide a best practice review of achievements based on philanthropic and corporate objectives.

Presenters: Jill A. Notini, Director, Communications & Marketing, Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), and Susan Puflea, Executive Vice President, Director, Change: Corporate Responsibility Practice, GolinHarris.

Communicating about your brand's social responsibility and meeting consumer expectations that your company "cares" is now considered a staple in the corporate communications discipline. Internal and external stakeholders increasingly demand information about corporate community involvement programs, which include product donations. Showcasing these activities in a manner that demonstrates corporate citizenship without appearing to simply be a public relations tactic can be challenging. This session will provide a summary view of corporate citizenship positioning from a leading practitioner in the public relations arena as well as a several best-in-class examples from companies.

Presenters: Margaret Coady, Corporate Giving Standard Program Manager, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, Jennifer Veilleux, Community Relations Director, CVS Corporation, and Kevin Martinez, Corporate Philanthropy Expert, Eddie Bauer, Starbucks, and The Home Depot

Everyone knows that ROI is a key business metric. Corporate community involvement professionals are now asked to define measurements and evaluate philanthropy program effectiveness too. Does the old methodology of reporting how many sick children were helped, or how many computers were donated suffice? Or have the required indicators evolved into measurements such as: was the social issue impacted, did the company experience an increase in sales, has a new product been introduced in an emerging market? This session will share the latest trends in measuring and evaluating your community programs for maximum ROI reporting to all stakeholders, both internal and external.

Presenter: Joe Ruiz, Communications and Training Manager, The UPS Foundation, Mr. Alfonso Martinez-Fonts, Jr., Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector Office, Department of Homeland Security, and Fred Wacker, Director, The Home Depot Foundation

Hurricane Katrina and other major disasters have prompted corporations to reexamine their philanthropic programs and the way in which they will direct their support and assistance. Following the events of 2005, many lessons were learned, and progress has been made in the collaboration between public and private relationships to more effectively respond when disaster strikes. This session will provide best case examples of partnerships that are making a positive difference to facilitate the identification of needs and the flow of donations in an effective way.

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Presenters: Raul Castilla, Regional Operations Manager, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Yalmaz Siddiqui, Environmental Strategy Advisor, Office Depot, and Mary Wong, President, Office Depot Foundation.

According to a recent consumer environmental study by Cone, a Boston-based public relations firm, 93 percent of Americans believe companies have a responsibility to help preserve the environment. Couple this with the outrageous costs companies spend on disposal and re-disposition activities as well as the carbon footprint these activities leave on the planet, and you have a perfect storm. The time has never been more appropriate to harness product donations as a disposition option in your arsenal. It is cost effective and helps the bottom line, improves our communities — and it is the right thing to do. This session will provide an overview of two leading companies who have implemented best-of-class donation strategies that have reaped major business benefits, achieved philanthropic goals and helped move forward key sustainability initiatives and goals.

Presenter: Gailen Vick, Founder and President, Reverse Logistics Association and JB Redd, District Manager (Pittsburgh), The Home Depot

It is estimated that the cost of reverse logistics accounts for approximately one percent of the total United States' GDP. The process of dealing effectively with returned merchandise has become an integral component of profitability and competitive position for companies across every industry. More and more companies have invested additional time and money into developing a better process to deal with returns management and monitoring the full lifecycle of their products. There are also a number of environmental implications to consider. This session will focus on adding the donation of inventory into the disposition process as an option and will provide the industry and business case perspective.

Presenters: Dan Kostenbauder, Vice President, Transaction Taxes, Hewlett-Packard Company and Laura Kalick, Senior Tax Consultant, BDO Seidman, LLP

Congress has provided a special rule under the federal tax law to encourage corporations to donate certain kinds of property to charitable organizations to be used "for the care of the ill, the needy, or infants." This special rule (Section 170(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code) effectively doubles the maximum available tax benefit by providing a deduction of up to twice the donor's basis in the property. There are also other financial benefits to consider that may present internal struggles with various business unit silos such as when to liquidate or donate. Experts on this subject matter will provide an overview on the tax guidelines as well as the overall business rationale for the financial benefits that product donations provide to the bottom line.

Presenters: Ms. Cindy Kleven, 3M Community Affairs, and Jeff Terry, Vice President, Cone, Inc.

 In a 1970 New York Times Magazine article, Milton Friedman, a well-known conservative economist, spoke out against public companies’ charitable giving practices, calling it a form of theft against shareholders. Fast forward four decades. Today companies actively embrace philanthropy as an important business strategy. Donations of products play a key role in aligning philanthropy with business objectives to improve communities and enhance the corporate bottom line. In the past, corporate contributions professionals may not have worked with their colleagues in the operations end of the business – but there has been a paradigm shift. This session will feature case study examples of companies that leveraged their core competencies into their philanthropy programs and were able to track ROI. From supply chain enhancement to tax deductions to decreasing or eliminating reverse logistics, there are real financial incentives for donating products.

Presenters: Derek Dervish, Director, Asset Management, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., and Stephen N. Groce, Loss Prevention Manager, Anna’s Linens

The management of unsaleables is an area that creates supply chain challenges on a daily basis. When you multiply that challenge across a national retail chain, the potential effect may include: monumental expense for reverse logistics, product security and loss prevention issues, brand erosion through liquidation or discount sales and environmental costs based on disposition choices. This session will present two leading national retailer’s strategies for managing POS product donations for inventory such as returns, display items, discontinued products, seasonal lines, re-sets and buy backs which provide business and community benefits for the company across the chain.

Presenter: Erika Benson, Esq. , Patton Boggs LLP

Additional Presenter To Be Announced

Maximize the success of your product philanthropy program by assessing and mitigating risk involved with the handling, storage, distribution, use, and accounting of donated merchandise. The last thing a company wants to see are its donated goods competing with any ongoing sales channels, being returned to retail locations, or appearing on a black market. Donations can happen from any point in the supply chain, thus there are multiple opportunities for shrink and other abuse to take place. This session will explore key considerations in minimizing potential pilferage and maintaining the integrity of the donation program.