While reading the latest issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, our team came across an article about the importance of “Securing Trust in People and Place.” At its core, the article examines how important building social trust is to improving communities long-term through philanthropy.
According to Pew Research Center, “social trust is a belief in the honesty, integrity, and reliability of others – a “faith in people.” While it is a simple enough concept to describe. It has never been easy to figure out who trusts, or why.
At THG we believe by nurturing the four pillars of Hyper-Philanthropy™, your organization will organically build social trust. Here’s how:
- Strategic Vision: Before you can build social trust, your board must build trust with each other. This is typically done through multiple strategic planning sessions where your board gains a mutual understanding of their responsibilities to each other, to the organization, and to the community. These strategic planning sessions will present an understanding why they’re invested in doing the work.
- Culture: No capital campaign can succeed without bringing a community together with social trust. And as the campaign comes together, you will identify and actualize the cultural nuances needed for the campaign to succeed.
- Behavioral Economics: Conducting a feasibility study is important because it helps you gauge the opinions of key decision makers within a community. In this way, you are uncovering the particular behavioral economics of the most influential people within your community.
- Communication: Once you’ve identified the cultural and behavioral nuances within your community, your board, staff, and volunteers will be empowered to go out into the community and live into their responsibilities.
Contact us today if you’re ready to get hyper about philanthropy.