New Trend in Corporate Giving on Agenda for CEOs’ Conference

“Creating shared value”–the name applied to the growing trend in corporate philanthropy to blend efforts to promote social good and business objectives—will be a key agenda item at a major gathering of corporate leaders Monday, says Reuters.

More than 90 CEO’s are to meet in New York at the Board of Boards conference, which coincides with International Corporate Philanthropy Day. The Clinton Global Initiative seeks to further push so-called shared-value efforts at a June gathering in Chicago that will focus on the economic recovery.

Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, coined the phrase to connote efforts that recognize “that what’s good for the community is actually good for business,” such as Nestle’s cooperation with poor coffee growers to improve their yields, increasing both the farmers’ incomes and the company’s coffee supply.