Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations: New Thinking and Practice

Foreword

Twenty-five years ago—before the era of corporate social responsibility, before the publication of the significant body of academic literature on cross-sector collaboration that this book comprehensively synthesizes and insightfully elaborates—a cold call came in to the corporate offices of the Timberland Company from City Year, the then-fledgling nonprofit.

City Year was launching a corps of fifty young people in Boston to demonstrate the power of national service to unite diverse American youth, solve pressing social problems, and bolster our nation’s democracy. The nonprofit was in search of boots because it wanted to unify its members in appearance and spirit and protect them during physically demanding service projects. Timberland ...