Uncommon Partners: The Power of Foundation and Corporation Collaboration

Abstract

Foundations and corporations seem to exist in different worlds, rarely acting in concert. Foundations operate primarily within civil society, while corporations function within a competitive global marketplace. Yet through their activities, corporations exert a powerful and direct impact on many of the social and environmental issues that foundations seek to influence through their grants. Conversely, foundations fund and work in close partnership with many civil society organizations and NGOs that corporations support - in addition, of course, to those that corporations oppose. In the US, for example, corporate donations add up to nearly 50 cents for every dollar in foundation grants. Moreover, corporations possess many of the tools that are essential components of social and environmental solutions - expertise in economic development, scientific and medical research, logistics, technology, and so on. These resources are often overlooked, however, when foundations develop their theories of change by working solely with civil society organizations.