The integrative benefits of social alliances: Balancing, building and bridging

There is no shortage of societal problems: a global AIDS epidemic, a global climate crisis, a widening gap between rich and poor, abject poverty, inaccessible healthcare, to name a few. Historically, problems such as these have fallen almost exclusively within the purview of governments and nonprofit organizations, but in recent years, corporations have been called upon to span sector boundaries and become involved with social problems that plague the globe. As such, corporate social responsibility has never been more prominent on the corporate agenda, but key questions beg for further investigation. How can companies most effectively contribute to solving social problems? How can corporate social responsibility be embedded in companies? Despite their immense resources and capabilities, companies typically have little history or expertise in dealing directly with social problems. Many argue that collaboration across sector boundaries is at least part of the solution. That is, companies must collaborate in meaningful and enduring ways with nonprofit organizations and governments as they respond to the world's ills. One way for them to do so is to form what we call ‘social alliances’, which are collaborative partnerships that span sector boundaries. Social alliances are long-term, strategic relationships between companies and nonprofits that have at least one non-economic (i.e. social) and one economic goal.