Giving Compass' Take:

• In this piece for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Jeff Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes Foundation, makes the case for businesses to take a stand for social justice: They can help accelerate progress. (Disclosure: the Raikes Foundation funds Giving Compass.)

• As Nike's recent ad featuring Colin Kaepernick showed, large companies aren't afraid to make political statements anymore, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should be embedded in the DNA of the private sector. How can philanthropists and business leaders alike do more to take Raikes' words to heart?

• Here's more on how to turn passion for social impact into true CSR expertise.

When I’m feeling despondent about the current state of our country, I think back to 2015 when the Supreme Court decided the Obergefell v. Hodges case legalizing marriage across the country for gay and lesbian Americans. It was a joyous and proud day for the country, affirming the dignity of our LBGTQ friends, loved ones, and family members while advancing the broader cause of justice.

Moments like that don’t just happen. They take years of activism, organizing, and legal work, underlined in this instance by the important role that many LGBTQ Americans played by having the courage to come out and share their identities, fueling the broader wave of acceptance that led to the consequential Supreme Court decision.

But a role that we don’t talk much about in advancing social justice in America is the one that the private sector has and should continue to play in the fight for a more equal society. At a time of deep distress for the nation, when we have a president actively working to undermine national cohesion and foment racial discord, that role becomes more urgent.

I’m a philanthropist, so you may think it’s easy for me to call on the private sector to do more, but I wrestled with these issues for decades when I was a leader at Microsoft. I am familiar with the argument that corporations should stick to their knitting, which is making products and profit. But I believe that corporations should not be neutral about issues of social justice, inclusion, and belonging. Companies exist in a climate where the way workers, customers, and the rule of law are treated are matters of self-interest, not just in terms of fairness but also for corporate health and viability in the marketplace.

Not all companies need to engage in the same way. There are multiple ways they can advance the cause of justice.

Corporate policies matter

The Ford Foundation was among a handful of philanthropic organizations engaged in the early years of the fight for LGBTQ rights. Its president, Darren Walker, told me that "a lot of the building blocks for marriage equality were laid in corporate America."

One of the most important was providing gay and lesbian couples benefits equal to those of straight, married couples. It was the right thing to do, and it gave companies a competitive edge in hiring, but their advocacy didn’t end there. Companies like Salesforce and Walmart spoke out powerfully against "religious freedom" laws that had started to crop up in states and were seen by many as a way to enshrine LBGTQ discrimination in a post-Obergefell world.

Listen to employees

At Microsoft, many of the company’s efforts to combat inequity flow from the natural talents and desires of their team. Employees expressed concerns to company executives about the persistent racial inequities in the criminal-justice system, particularly the tragic, and ongoing, killing of unarmed men and boys of color by the police. So in 2016, the company identified ways it could contribute to advance the overhaul of the criminal-justice system.

It began working with partners in Washington State and around the country to develop tools providing transparency to sentencing; improve de-escalation training for the police; and ensure technologies like artificial intelligence and facial recognition do not further exacerbate bias.

Be introspective

Starbucks has a long history of using its size and influence to bring about meaningful social changes.

With that history, both the company founder, Howard Schultz, and the CEO, Kevin Johnson, responded in an effective way when two African-American customers in one of their Philadelphia stores experienced racial bias. The company immediately took responsibility for its mistake, addressed the situation in a forthright way, and, most important, consulted with the communities most affected by bias and discrimination as it worked to formulate its longer-term response.

Since then, the company has taken a hard look at how to make Starbucks more diverse, equitable, and inclusive ...

When I was part of the leadership team at Microsoft in the ’80s and ’90s, stepping into "politics" — assigning your company to one side or another in a debate — was considered foolish. The differences between the political parties weren’t as distinct as they are today. Our politics operated within mostly acceptable boundaries of civility and dignity.

But we are now living in a different time, a time when we should — and must — step forward and publicly state our values and collectively act to advance opportunity for all.

Read the full article about why we need corporate America in the fight for justice by Jeff Raikes at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.