The Boston Globe: Class and Conscience

December 3, 2009 – Boston Globe – MA, USA

Class and conscience

Companies need a way to give back. Nonprofits need managers with executive training. One firm helps them meet on common ground.
 Bruce Campbell offered some pointers to Leslie Hirsh, an employee of Natixis Global Asset Management, during a class that included executives from Natixis and nonprofit groups.

Campbell’s firm, Engage, enlists corporate clients to share training with nonprofits.  A few years ago, Bruce Campbell had a thriving career teaching leadership and presentation skills to company managers, and he spent many an off-hour coaching staff and executives at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley pro bono. But he wanted to do more. 

A chance conversation with Milton J. Little Jr., then United Way’s chief executive, gave Campbell an idea: What if Campbell could get his corporate clients to fund training for nonprofit leaders – who often need management skills but rarely have the resources to get such schooling?

Early last year, Campbell merged his business with his volunteer work, reinventing his Boston-based company Engage LLC to offer what he calls “socially responsible executive coaching.’’ Under Campbell’s model, companies invite nonprofits to share in the training that their managers receive, often via joint classes on such topics as presentation skills, strategic sales, and communications.  Read Story.