Three years ago, Mary Donohue, then executive director of the Molson Indy Foundation, arrived at a career crossroad and managed to follow both paths. Molson had sold the Indy event and Donohue had signed up for a doctor of education program at Central Michigan University. She pitched a new proposal to Molson, one that allowed her to benefit the company, the charities it serves, and potentially many other charities and corporations, by using its corporate philanthropy program as a “lab” for what she was learning.

Donohue’s experiment resulted in the National Mentoring Program, an initiative that partners Molson with business schools (Queen’s University initially, then the University of Toronto and Dalhousie University as well), to create 16-week paid internships with charities for business students.

Molson does much more than just fund the program. Each student is mentored by a Molson executive or manager who makes a commitment to weekly advisory contact with the student. Initial evaluations show that all five parties are delighted – the students, the charities, Molson, the business schools and the mentors.

No-one, not even staff, trusted corporations by 2008

Even before her corporate philanthropy career took her to Molson, Donohue was concerned over the gap between well-meaning corporate philanthropy and the lack of measurable internal and external impact.

“I saw so many staff far removed from corporate philanthropy,” she says. They weren’t connecting with it, weren’t talking about it. Many thought it was just a PR move and didn’t buy into the morals or ideas that the company’s philanthropy supports.”

At the same time, she noticed that advertising wasn’t connecting to consumers the way it once had. Trust eroded under the impact of government and corporate scandals. A 2008 McKinsey Report found employees and consumers don’t believe corporations provide value to the community, she points out. They don’t trust corporations and believe they lack moral standards.

“By the end of 2007,” she asserts, “trust between corporations and consumers had virtually ended. When the market plummeted in October 2008, consumers weren’t surprised. By that time they had been let down time and time again. And employees are consumers as well. They’re working for the very companies that they and nearly everyone else don’t trust.”

Rebuilding trust and brand through philanthropy

 Donohue became convinced that handled differently, corporate philanthropy could repair relationships with both staff and consumers. Before and after the first round of the National Mentoring Program, Donohue surveyed staff awareness of Molson’s giving program, their expectations of the program and their satisfaction with it. She also asked how staffers get their information about the corporation.

Her research within the company indicates that philanthropy enables employees to align with the company’s moral purpose and connect that purpose to their own values. Staff report higher satisfaction with the corporate culture, corporate leadership and their own leadership. And they share their enthusiasm with contacts beyond the company.

Real-life experience enhances students’ training

Under the guidance of one Molson mentor, a Queen’s student worked with a grassroots youth soccer organization in an underserved area of Toronto. Its activities were limited to the warmer weather – there was no place for the children to play indoors. The student collected over 3,000 signatures on a petition calling for the city to build an indoor soccer facility.

The mentor’s experience with government relations on Molson’s behalf came in handy. He coached the student on developing a relationship with the municipal councillor, preparing and presenting a needs analysis, and advocating for the project. At the close of their 16 weeks together, while the city had not formally committed to the facility, it was much closer to becoming a reality.

Donohue provides extensive resources for both students and mentors. Students must submit applications that demonstrate an understanding of philanthropy and of Molson’s policies and goals. The charities are expected to provide high-level projects that challenge the students’ newly-acquired business skills. The program emphasizes measurable benefits that are tracked all along the way and a community investment approach that empowers participants.

A natural fit for tight corporate budgets

“Will the Globe and Mail write about a $50,000 donation?” Donohue asks. Not likely. But community papers will, she’s noticed. And once they write about something, bloggers pick it up and online media begin writing about it, an effect she calls “trickle-up” public relations.

As the economy remains uncertain, she points to the ability of the National Mentoring Program to work within restrained corporate budgets and still achieve impact. It provides meaningful jobs and solves problems, she declares – jobs that change how a young leader sees the world, and problems that a charity would not otherwise get a grant or an employee to solve.

Donohue receives her degree this spring and will soon open a private practice that will expand the National Mentoring Program. She is looking for more corporations to participate and is especially interested in involving universities that already have co-op programs. She’d like to see longer internships too. “A whole year of help from a business student could make such an impact on charities in the communities where corporations do business,” she says.