December 16, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships
By Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal
Governments should scrap regulations that discourage businesses and charities to collaborate on
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Break Down Barriers to Business-Charity Partnerships
money-making ventures, say the authors.
Ms. Sagawa, former executive director of the Corporation for National Service, and Mr. Segal, president of the Welfare to Work Partnership, cite two such regulations: the unrelated-business income tax, which taxes earnings from activities that aren’t connected to a non-profit group’s charitable mission; and state laws that require charities to register if they solicit residents. The state laws burden charities that wish to form marketing alliances with businesses, write the authors, because attorneys general require charities to register in each state where the business partners operate.
“Instead of taking a narrow regulatory view, government and civic leaders should think about ways they can stimulate connectedness among organizations of different sectors,” say the authors.
Accordingly, they offer a guide for non-profit groups that wish to attract the interests of businesses and analyze seven examples of such arrangements.
For instance: The anti-hunger group Share Our Strength has co-hosted events with the cookware maker Calphalon, which has produced donations for the charity and increased sales for the company; and the American Library Association has given poor people access to high technology through a partnership with Microsoft — access gained by using Microsoft’s products.
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press, Operations Department, Boston 02163; (617) 495-6117 or (888) 500-1016; fax (617) 496-1029; corpcustserv@hbsp.harvard.edu; http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu; 264 pages; $27.50; I.S.B.N. 0-87584-848-6.
