Reference no: EM133230643

Case: As a new vice president of corporate philanthropy, Jack Birke was looking forward to the great initiatives and part-nerships that the company could create through his office. During his 18-year career, Jack worked for several large nonprofit organizations and earned an excellent reputation for his ability to raise funds, develop advisory boards, and in general, work well with the business community. About a year ago, Jack decided to investigate other opportunities within the fundraising industry and started looking at companies that were formalizing their philan-thropy efforts. He was hired as vice president less than a month ago and was in the process of developing an office structure, getting to know the organization, and creating a strategic plan. His charge over the next year was to develop a stronger reputation for philanthropy and social responsibility with the company's stakeholders, including employees, cus-tomers, and the community. An executive assistant, director of volunteerism, and director of community relations were already on board, and Jack was looking for additional staff. The position and office were new to the company, and Jack had already heard dissent from other employees, ? who openly questioned how important philanthropy was to the business. After all, the economy was slowing, and it seemed that customers were more concerned about price and value than any "touchy-feely" program. About half of the company's employees worked on the manufacturing line, and the other half was employed in administrative or professional positions. Both groups seemed to be equally suspicious of Jack and his office. The company developed an employee volunteer program two years ago, but it was never very successful. A program to gather food, gifts, and money to support needy families at Christmas, however, drew strong support. The firm had fairly good relation-ships in the community, but these were primarily the top executives' connections through the chamber of commerce, industry associations, nonprofit boards, and so forth. In sum, while Jack had the support of top management, many employees were unsure about philanthropy and its impor-tance to the company.

Question: Jack was starting to think about short-term policies and long-term strategy for marketing his office and its goals to the rest of the organization. What would you do?