Giving Compass' Take:

• Gayatri Agnew, director of career opportunity at the Walmart Foundation, outlines the five guiding strategies for Walmart's corporate philanthropy framework.

• How is Walmart incorporating social change strategies into Walmart's corporate philanthropy work?

• Read about the new era of corporate social responsibility.

“We think of ourselves as social change strategists,” explained Gayatri Agnew, Director of Career Opportunity at the Walmart Foundation, distinguishing the aspirations for her role from those typically expected of corporate foundation program officers or grants administrators.

Gayatri described Walmart’s Retail Opportunity Initiative, a 5-year, $100 million effort launched in 2015 aimed at strengthening the transferability of skills of the U.S. retail workforce and developing ways to make it easier for front-line workers to advance their careers, both within and beyond Walmart. This initiative is part of a Walmart’s larger portfolio of global responsibility efforts, including other efforts focused on opportunity as well as the company’s sustainability and community priorities.

How is being a “social change strategist” different from traditional CSR leadership roles? Here are 5 lessons you can learn from Gayatri’s work:

How is being a “social change strategist” different from traditional CSR leadership roles? Here are 5 lessons you can learn from Gayatri’s work:

1) Leveraging core competencies: Gayatri and the foundation team partner directly with their HR colleagues to raise and address recruiting and retention challenges.

2) Integrating with business strategy: In addition to leveraging its core competencies, the retail opportunity focus is squarely an integrated business strategy for Walmart—a true shared value investment to which Walmart is committed for the long term.

3) Employing humility and authentic listening: You need to talk with folks who understand the problem.” They invested time and resources to understand the true needs and gaps in the landscape of nonprofit intermediaries working on retail workforce issues and those findings informed how they designed their strategy.

4) Adapting strategy as you learn: Gayatri emphasized the critical importance of having an adaptive approach

5) Embracing systems change: It requires co-developing multisector efforts with partners and identifying “shared outcomes” for Walmart and its nonprofit partners.

Read the full article about corporate philanthropy by Greg Hills at FSG.