America is truly a house divided. Our politics are a toxic mess. We’ve managed to politicize nearly everything, including:
- the media we consume
- wearing masks during the pandemic
- the climate and future life on the planet
- demonstrations about social and racial justice by athletes and celebrities
We are deeply at odds, and the American Dream and the future of our democracy are seemingly at risk.
After spending half my long career in the nonprofit sector and half in business, with a short stint in government, I’ve come to see that today’s social and environmental problems are far too big and too tough to be solved by any one sector of society.
My mantra is: Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by attacking back. In response, we need all three sectors of society, working together, to create positive and lasting change:
- Nonprofits including universities, faith-based organizations, associations, and others driving social change
- Businesses serving people, the planet, and profit — the triple bottom line
- Government serving as a catalyst by crafting policies and fostering innovative approaches to advance economic and social goals. Today’s vaccines against the coronavirus are an excellent example of government creating social value
All three sectors must work in sync to solve our biggest problems. This is seldom easy, but the glue that binds people together is usually enlightened self-interest and giving all sides a sense of having won at least some of what they want.
Talking and Fighting
We need to break down the barriers that keep us apart. Today’s endless combat is almost never going to work. We need everyone at the table, even those with whom we disagree. We often hear public advocates refer to corporations as enemies that can’t be trusted, the problem not the solution. Companies, in turn, may refer to nonprofits advocating for social change as unrealistic “tree huggers” and “job killers.” We have to get past all that.
Here are some examples of partnerships that have succeeded:
Our first big client at Porter Novelli — which Jack Porter and I founded years ago to apply marketing to social and health issues — was the National High Blood Pressure Education Program. It was headed by government (the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at NIH). Then, as today, the pharmaceutical industry was often looked upon with suspicion. But pharma companies joined the program, stuck to the guidelines, and made major contributions. These companies realized that as we educated clinicians and the public about high blood pressure control, they would sell more products. It was enlightened self-interest on their part: doing well by doing good.
As CEO of AARP, I helped form a coalition of “strange bedfellows called Divided We Fail that included the Business Roundtable, the Service Employees International Union, and the National Federation of Independent Business. We didn’t agree on much, but we came together around the urgent need for health insurance for millions of Americans who lacked it. When we four CEOs of this unholy alliance went to Capitol Hill to lobby, members of Congress and their staffs would say, You guys can’t even agree on what time it is. Maybe so, but we were together on health insurance, and we were an effective partnership that helped pave the way for the Affordable Care Act.
Today our Business for Impact program at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business oversees the Portion Balance Coalition, which includes food and beverage companies, watchdog nonprofit groups, government policy makers, and academics. All are working together to combat obesity. The organizations don’t always see eye to eye, but we’re overcoming our differences to build consumer demand for portion-balanced food and drinks and to influence restaurants, among others, to help bring about healthier portion sizes.
By far the toughest talk-and-fight experience I’ve ever had was working on the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. There is no redeeming social value in marketing cigarettes. But even here, we found some common ground, grudgingly, on the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to curb marketing to kids as well as some other issues. It took years to achieve, but now smoking is down substantially among adults and children. As a lead negotiator for the companies said later, “There came a time in the tobacco wars when the industry, the government, and the public health community needed to find a way out of the bitter confrontation.”
The lesson here is that today’s opponents may be tomorrow’s allies, or at least be neutralized. There should be no permanent enemies, only permanent values and principles.
Nonprofit organizations are uniquely positioned to bring the sectors together. Their powerful social missions, willingness to engage, credibility with policy makers, and often strong grass roots operations are all important advantages. So divided we fail, but united we can make positive social change happen.
