JIM GRAHAM WROTE: I guess the Corporate Partners are only interested in the "Corporate Interests" south of 24th Street and be damned to the rest.
You may be right about that, Jim, but there are other possibilities. Perhaps they realize the limitations of their perspective? Perhaps they see themselves as the corporate resident of a few blocks and set their mission on their own immediate surroundings, much like a block club does. Having worked for several corporations I really doubt that any would take on a scope as large as a whole neighborhood, because most want to place limits on non-business activities (i.e., non-revenue generating). What I am curious about is whether or not the neighborhood association (if it is a 501c3) or other resident-driven groups have applied to these corporations' foundations for any grants to address the wider problems? Do you know the answer? That's the way most corporations contribute to their neighborhoods. When I used to work in corporate philanthropy my observation was that some companies were better than others re their community involvement. Few of them took risks or took on projects that had potential be volatile. One particularly enlightened company greatly encouraged their employees to be active in their own neighborhood organizations and they also lent some of their top executives to particularly troubled neighborhoods (to -- gasp -- sit on the board of directors) and lend them management and governance expertise as well as being able to pull in more fundraising. As far as I know, all the neighborhood boards where this happened were good experiences for all involved and there were some pretty thorny situations that were successfully addressed. I don't know anything about the specific situation you are discussing, I just know that corporate involvement in neighborhoods isn't, by definition, always a bad thing. Barbara Nelson Burnsville but my heart is still in Minneapolis -- Barbara Nelson [EMAIL PROTECTED] "We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human responsibility." - Albert Einstein, Physicist _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
