Ways to Give Back

Don't overengineer. Give people a lot of latitude. Make it clear that the company is willing to support any initiative, but don't make lots of rules.

You can't mandate a corporate giving-back program. But you can develop a supportive structure that connects people in your company with the community.

Jeanne Wisniewski makes sure that HumanCare Corps stays on everyone's radar screen. Before joining Oxford, she worked for JFK Health Systems in Edison, New Jersey.

Oscar Motomura
Partner and CEO
Amana-Key
Sao Paulo, Brazil
motomura@amanakey.com.br

For me, the way to start giving back is to reexamine the idea of "giving back." The phrase implies that, as businesspeople and as companies, we should take first and then give back later. I believe that the purpose of life is to serve others and that goes for companies as well as individuals.

At Amana-Key, we've launched a number of initiatives: a program to open our offices to 300 teenagers, offering seminars on skills they'll need in the future; a program to adopt a school, providing books, art supplies, and clothing for the children; a program to adopt a community, giving free lunches to needy kids.

These programs were easy to start because of the way we think about giving back. Our first rule is, Just give don't expect anything in return. Follow your intuition and act quickly.

When we adopted a school, there was no feasibility study just an immediate commitment to act. Don't criticize others for what they do or don't do. Be strategic in the ways you seek to involve them without judging their motives. And don't view giving back as secondary to the rest of your business or your life.

The question we ask at our organization is, Are we here just to meet the needs of a 'market' or are we here to serve the needs of society?

Oscar Motomura is one of Brazil's most innovative educators. His organization creates "knowledge products" for senior executives and middle managers, with the goal of fostering more thoughtful corporate leadership.

Abby Siegel
Account Executive
Philadelphia Business Journal
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
http://www.libertynet.org/~wardrobe

Appearance matters in business. So it's a problem when you have the skills to do a job but not the money needed to "look the part." That's why I cofounded The Working Wardrobe, a nonprofit organization that provides interview clothing to disadvantaged women who have completed training programs and are actively looking for work. When our clients find jobs, we invite them back to receive two or three more outfits to build their wardrobes.

Our mission is not really to distribute clothes, of course. It's to enhance the marketability of low-income women who seek self-sufficiency. We help bridge the gap between training programs and employment.

The Working Wardrobe opened its doors in December 1995. We hoped that in our first three years, we'd be able to serve 1,600 women. In fact, in less than two years, we've outfitted 1,849 women689 of whom have landed jobs, 347 of whom have come back for more clothes.

The contacts I've made in ad sales were major factors in getting this group off the ground. They helped me do everything from making pitches for office space to contacting clothing manufacturers to persuading IBM to donate computers. The assets you take for granted your basic job skills can be your best resources for getting things done outside the job.

Abby Siegel was named Philadelphia Business Journal Salesperson of the Year in 1996. She was also designated a Newspaper Advertising All-Star by the Philadelphia Ad Club in 1997.

Thomas Sloan
Special Agent in Charge,
Major Events Division
U.S. Secret Service
Washington, DC

There's more to growing as a person than growing on the job. You can't become a better parent or a better citizen unless you take action. Do you want to improve education? Then pick up the phone and arrange a meeting at a local school. Once you take that first step, you realize that other people are counting on you, and things almost always fall into place.

Four years ago the special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division came up with the idea of adopting the Kramer Middle School in Washington, DC. Then he acted: he got in touch with the principal, and he presented the idea to President Clinton as a Christmas gift. I inherited responsibility for the project in 1995 and passed that role onto someone else this past fall.

Already you can see the difference we've made in the school. When the kids walk in, they see a big fish tank that we provided. They use 15 computers that we donated this past spring. We take the kids on field trips to our headquarters. We have a basketball team that plays the school's team once a year. (Our record since 1993: two wins, two losses.)