Arizona is home to a wide range of highly effective and even nationally recognized charitable organizations, giving businesses a variety of ways to support the community through philanthropic investments and activities. Successful companies — whether family-owned businesses or large corporations — recognize the value of aligning their charitable giving with strategic business goals. This alignment can boost employee morale, enhance a company’s reputation and raise awareness of corporate values. While it may be relatively easy to identify causes that merit a company’s commitment, the more significant step is choosing nonprofit organizations that will do the most good with the support they receive.
Through our Pakis Center for Business Philanthropy, the Arizona Community Foundation sees an exciting evolution in the way companies direct their resources toward the goal of developing strong, vibrant communities. Whether through corporate grantmaking, employee scholarship programs or staff volunteer activities, businesses are stepping up to the challenge of being good corporate citizens in the communities where they do business.
The concept of “getting good by doing good” is the foundation of this issue’s cover story. How do businesses make good on their commitments to causes they support? What is the return they realize for their efforts — to themselves and their communities? The answers vary in surprising ways, In Business Magazine Editor RaeAnne Marsh discovered in speaking with leaders of Valley businesses and professionals in the nonprofit world.
Collaboration is another essential component of an organization’s strategic goals. In the “Management” feature, Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan discuss the role of purpose — identified and shared among a business’s workforce — in forging the collaborative intelligence that will enable business success. Local attorneys with a strong practice in labor law share important information on changes business owners should be aware of in this issue’s “Legal” feature. And Donald Hastings offers a perspective on what company layoffs says about that business’s management as the “Roundtable” feature.
In Business Magazine presents the second edition of the Valley’s most comprehensive “Business Owners’ Legal Guide” as a convenient reference to legal services in the Greater Phoenix area for business owners, and includes top firms profiled.
There’s a lot of food for thought in this August issue of In Business Magazine as well as the usual broad assortment of business topics. I’m pleased to help bring you this “Philanthropy” edition, and hope you enjoy the articles.
Sincerely,
Steven G. Seleznow, Ed.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Arizona Community Foundation
Steven G. Seleznow is president and CEO of Phoenix-based Arizona Community Foundation, a statewide philanthropy whose mission is to lead, serve and collaborate to mobilize enduring philanthropy for a better Arizona. Founded in 1978, ACF has more than 1,500 funds, a network of six affiliated foundations throughout the state, more than $710 million in charitable assets under management today, is Arizona’s largest statewide grant maker, largest private provider of scholarships to students and among the nation’s largest 30 community foundations.
Seleznow earned a doctorate and master’s degree in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University, a Master of Arts from the University of Maryland, and is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University.
