November 27, 2009 - This was the topic of the 2nd forum dedicated to corporate philanthropy held on November 10, 2009 at the residence of the British ambassador. It was attended by 45 representatives from 26 companies. Despite the decreased amount of money donated to philanthropy in 2009, representatives of the companies tried to find solutions to preserving continuity of philanthropic projects. Stronger stress was laid on efficient use of finances as a way to maximalize the impact of the provided support.
The efficient use of financial support can be measured by the Standard Community Investment methodology (London Benchmarking Model). This methodology was used in Slovakia last year by seven companies – Citibank (Slovakia), a.s., Telefónica O2 Slovakia, s.r.o., Provident Financial, s.r.o., T-Mobile Slovensko, a.s., Všeobecná úverová banka, a.s., Východoslovenská energentika, a.s. Západoslovenská energetika, a.s. – to measure their community investment. His Excellency, the British ambassador to Slovakia Michael Roberts and the Executive Director of the Pontis Foundation Lenka Surotchak presented a certificate for the usage of this methodology to representatives of these companies.
Pavel Hrica, Program Director of the Pontis Foundation and Norbert Maur, Program Coordinator of the Foundation explained in their presentation the exact way the Standard Community Investment methodology functions and the benefits measuring a company’s donorship and its impact brings.
Philanthropy in times of financial crisis was the topic presented by Kirsty McHugh, Program Director of the organization Business in the Community, the largest companies´ association in Britain. She underlined the necessity to associate companies and form partnerships when seeking strategic and long-term solutions to significant social problems, which have due to the financial crisis multiplied.
Low-cost solutions of corporate philanthropy, e.g. engaging employees in volunteering, providing pro bono services, employees’ collections, alternative Christmas presents supporting charitable projects and other innovative examples of corporate philanthropy were presented to the forum participants by the Pontis Foundation Program Coordinators - Monika Smolová and Oľga Auchenbach.
The forum’s highlight was undoubtedly the philanthropic “Pecha Kucha”, at which representatives of companies and non-profit organizations presented their models of cooperation. Why they decided for such a mutual cooperation, what is the nature of their cooperation and what impact the interlinked corporate and non-profit sectors have on art’s development, re-socialization of prisoners, employment of the homeless, education of children in orphanages, integration of the hearing-impaired or practical help to people living in a shelter house. This experience was presented in time-limited presentations with maximum of 20 slides by the following partner companies and non-profit organizations: Ján Orlovský (Západoslovenská energetika, a.s. and Jozef Lupták (CA Konvergencie), Viera Blažejová (Accenture, s.r.o.) and Martina Justová (CA Maják), Peter Varga (NESsT) and Ľuboš Tomko (Inštitút Krista Veľkňaza, Žakovce), Ladislav Kossár (Venvivis) and Lucia Daubnerová (CA Pro Vida), Denisa Šulcová (T-Mobile Slovensko, a.s.) and Róbert Šarina (Association of the hearing-impaired, Slovakia), Pavel Hrica representing Optika, s.r.o. and Alenka Dreveňáková (Depaul, Slovensko).
The main partner of this event was T-Mobile Slovensko, a.s., media partners were the web portal EurActive.sk, monthly Stratégie and web portal www.zodpovednepodnikanie.sk.
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