Mr. Jeff A. Hawthorne

Grassroots (and Employee) Engagement in the Private Sector

Posted by Mr. Jeff A. Hawthorne, Mar 08, 2010 2 comments


Mr. Jeff A. Hawthorne

Here in Portland, business giving to the arts has been in the news quite a bit lately. Our Business Journal reported that giving is down 33% since 2006, and isn’t likely to recover anytime soon. And a recent article in the Sunday Oregonian noted that large corporate gifts are becoming increasingly rare – not only due to the economy but also a lack of said corporations here; Portland has only two Fortune 500 companies, vs. oodles of small independent businesses.

These articles recommend that arts organizations scale their visions accordingly, recognizing that major visionary cultural projects may never be able to come to fruition. Some say that that’s not necessarily a bad idea, conforming toward our city’s strengths, anyway: progressive, smaller scale, more indie, and a bit quirky. When an arts reporter from New York comes to town, she’s not interested in our Sondheim or Tchaikovsky but rather the creative collaboration between cellos and local rock bands, or the way our ballet dancers are attracting hipsters to their performances at night clubs. These are the more unique aspects of Portland’s vibrant arts community, and programs like these are developing quite a grassroots following.

Despite some predictions to the contrary, our local business leaders tell us that their giving will recover as profits allow, and civic pride in our unique creativity is something they want to continue to invest in. One nexus between these two concepts – corporate giving and grassroots support – lies in employee engagement.

“The best way to increase corporate giving is to get employees volunteering and giving to the arts,” says Carole Morse, President of the Portland General Electric Foundation, one of the city’s largest arts funders. “Then corporate dollars will follow.” Indeed, United Arts Funds with workplace giving programs have become an increasingly popular way to pursue this strategy, and we’ve witnesses some promising examples with our own UAF, “Work for Art,” now in its 6th year.

At Portland General Electric, we bring artists in to interact with accountants and linemen alike, attracting hundreds of new arts donors every year. Although the corporation’s giving has declined in the past two years, employee giving us up, and you can bet that company leaders are continuing to take note of what’s important to their employees, which will inform future investments.

Similar story at NW Natural, one of our region’s largest utilities, where employees have demonstrated such surprising levels of arts giving that the corporation has begun allocating more of its overall philanthropic budget to the arts.

And Burgerville, a sustainable fast food chain, raised $8,900 in their first Work for Art campaign in 2008. Last fall they bested themselves by 80%, with 215 employees raising a total of $15,900.

Success stories like these confirm a lot of what we’ve been hearing in the community during this difficult economic time. Residents and employees understand that the arts are not a luxury but rather an important aspect of a strong community. Individuals have always been the strongest aspect of arts philanthropy, but perhaps there are more ways to get our businesses (and elected leaders, too!) to follow their lead as the economy improves.

2 responses for Grassroots (and Employee) Engagement in the Private Sector

Comments

Fran Smyth says
March 09, 2010 at 12:52 pm

Volunteers can be a source of corporate contributions as well - companies may have "dollars for doers" programs that funnel contributios to organizations their employees volunteer at. It's always worth asking.

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September 03, 2010 at 3:21 pm

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