The upshot has been a reconceptualization of the role of the corporation in society. In this reconceptualization, a number of corporations are coming to accept a special responsibility to contribute to the solution of public problems. More than that, they are coming to recognize the need to imbue not only their philanthropic activities but their business activities as well with a common set of core values stressing such things as equity, diversity, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the environment, and the promotion of community. Corporate philanthropy and corporate community involvement are thus coming to be seen as parts of a broader corporate citizenship imperative that applies a given set of core values to the way corporations earn their income as well as to how they give part of it away. In this expanded vision, nonprofit organizations have a critical role to play as vehicles through which corporations can promote their community objectives and activate their values.
Nonprofits provide flexible means for addressing public problems.
They also bring critical knowledge, experience, and contacts to the table, thus serving as a bridge between corporations and the problems they seek to address. Also at work have been a number of more practical pressures on the nonprofit side as well the slowing growth of public sector support in many fields, the loss of credibility of government as a promoter of social and economic change, and the need for business involvement to help generate support for, and not just to finance, efforts to address community needs. The result has been a surge of creativity in forging new relationships between business and the nonprofit sector, as well as between these two and government, in addressing community needs. In the former, corporations dedicate a portion of their receipts from the sale of particular products to particular nonprofit organizations for use in addressing the problems these organizations are designed to address. In the latter, the corporation provides support for a particular nonprofit activity e.g. a cultural event, a university-based research project in return for public recognition from the nonprofit and, in some cases, joint ownership of the results.