A
s the number of meetings that incorporate charitable components into their programs continues to grow, so does the
overall impact that the meetings industry has on the $1.5-trillion philanthropy industry. And that would seem to be all for the positive. But if meetings can magnify the good that charities do, they also can magnify their flaws. And many charitable organizations fall woefully short, former National Public Radio (NPR) CEO Ken Stern writes in his recently published book, With Charity for All: Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give. Among other things, Stern writes, the charity sector lacks sufficient government oversight: The IRS approves 99.5 percent of all applications, and once established, charities — which number more than one million in the United States — rarely die. And there is a lack of industry-wide standards when it comes to measuring a charity’s results. From water charities intended to improve life in Africa to drug-education programs run by police officers in U.S. schools, many organizations raise and spend millions of dollars without making a dent in the problems they set out to solve. So what’s a well-intentioned meeting planner
to do? The good news is that there is a movement toward finding new ways to add greater accountability and effectiveness to the nonprofit world. At the same time, meeting professionals are recognizing that, with proper research and planning, they can ensure that their groups’ giving-back efforts make the biggest impact possible. Convene spoke with Stern, National Philanthropic Trust CEO Eileen Heisman, and Claire Smith, CMP, vice president of sales and marketing for the Vancouver Convention Centre and board liaison to PCMA’s CSR Task Force, about what it takes for the meetings industry to truly make a difference for those in need.
62 PCMA CONVENE AUGUST 2013
Ken Stern ‘We just sort of assume that because people are trying to do good, they are doing good. That’s actually not the case. That suggests — and this is actually the hard part of the conversation — that a lot of money is going to things that aren’t making an impact. A lot of time, effort, and good intentions are going into those things. We need to redirect those efforts to things that actually matter and make differences to society and people’s lives.’
PCMA.ORG
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