All Briefs

The crises seem to come faster all the time. During the first two quarters of 2020, we went directly from a crisis about the global Covid-19 pandemic, to a crisis about the resulting sharp economic slowdown, to the Back Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.

As the COVID-19 pandemic and recession put more pressure than ever on donors and nonprofits, it’s urgent that we talk realistically about what it takes to solve society’s problems. The Impact Genome Project's Price of Impact Index can help with these discussions.

Jeff Hoffman speaks with Gerard Dehrmann, SVP, Public Affairs & State and Local Government Relations, Walmart Stores, Inc. and Kabir Kumar, Senior Director, Community, Walmart.org. to explore the dynamics of the relationship between company’s government relations and corporate citizenship functions and how they can work together to greater effect.

At this point in the U.S. experience of the pandemic and all the other related crises, many of our brains have been rewired to make anxiety our primary or automatic response to any perceived threat. If we are among those experiencing automatic anxiety, we need to focus on rewiring our brains to become more resilient. We can rewire our brains to minimize—and in some cases eliminate—anxiety and make other more healthy and productive behaviors into our automatic responses.

In its most recent Connect and Reflect report, “Why Company Directors Should Use Social Media,” The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) describes the benefits of social media for directors and offers practical guidance about how to make a start.

Richard Parsons, a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity Partners as well as the former Chairman of Citigroup and Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc., recently joined our CEO Forum on Building a More Civil & Just Society. In our interview, we discussed the evolving role of public corporations and practical suggestions about making concrete progress in advancing both inclusion and equity in our society.

In this interview, Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, reflects on the death of George Floyd, the uprisings that have spread across America as a result, and the role of public corporations in fostering diversity and inclusion and driving social change.

The SEC’s proposal to “fix” Form 13F – the form on which large investment managers report their equity holdings of public companies – could have a significant impact on companies being aware of, as well responding to and engaging with, activist investors – especially at relatively smaller companies, which are are increasingly susceptible to activism.