Episdoe notes:

• Follow Fred on LinkedIn

• Check out social impact at HPE

• Get the backstory of  the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

• Learn more about the US Department of Energy National Labs

• Check out HPE’s partner Labstart

• See what HPE’s Accelerator programs look like

• Read about HPE’s partnerships with the International Rescue Committee and UNICEF

• Get the report about climate technology incubators and accelerators

• Learn about HPE’s partner Fast Forward 

• Listen to the Impact Audio episode with Shannon Farley

• Read about HPE’s Accelerating Impact campaign

• Learn more about the disaster response at the ITDRC

• Get a primer on modern slavery

• Check out Walk Free and the International Labour Organization

• Learn more about the Supporting Survivors of Modern Slavery Challenge

Transcript:

This transcript was automatically generated.

In the early 1960s, one of the most urgent issues for global development was hunger.

The United Nations brought more than one hundred member countries together as part of an anti hunger campaign that coordinated efforts from governments and NGOs.

They launched the World Food Programme, which was a three year experiment.

What they realized through this collective effort was that hunger wasn't a singular issue. It was a byproduct of poverty and inequality and disease, and it would take incredible coordination to make real lasting change.

Over the next decade, the UN continued to prioritize this collective approach, bringing countries together around specific targets and eventually developing the sustainable development goals that many organizations use today to orient their social impact work.

For anyone working in social impact, this progress offers a valuable lesson.

Partnerships are what unlock social change.

From his vantage, Fred Tan has seen what's possible when organizations come together around a shared goal.

Today, he digs into how to build those relationships between organizations and between people.

Welcome to Impact Audio. I am Sam Caplan, vice president of social impact at Submittable.

Joining me today is Fred Tan, head of social impact at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, also known as HPE.

When Fred talks about his work, one of the things that stands out most about HPE's approach to social impact is the strength of the partnerships they build with other organizations.

When HPE approaches these partnerships, they first focus on the big picture view and then ask specific questions to find their role within it. To help guide those questions, Fred and his team divide their programs into three pillars, health, climate, and human rights.

Across all three pillars, actually, health, climate, and human rights, our perspective is how do we strengthen the innovation ecosystem as a whole, and then how do we support the innovators individually? And in the climate space, for example, the US Department of Energy National Labs produce more than twenty five thousand climate related inventions each year, which is remarkable. And, you know, some of those inventions is a partnership between what we do at Hewlett Packard Enterprise on our corporate side and and the research work that we do at the Department of Energy. But we saw that a lot of these inventions after being produced just the IP just sat on the shelf. No one's really doing anything with it. And so we're working with a partner, LabStart, who vets these IP interventions, connects them with diverse entrepreneurs, and help them to take it up to market scale. And so that's one example in the climate space.

In the health and the human rights space, it looks similar. So in the health space, we look at the ecosystem, and I I think the overriding sentiment probably globally as well is that costs are increasing, you know, patient experience is declining, and that's a worrying trend, both of those ways. And so we work again with accelerators and incubators to say, let's go find incredible startups with solutions, you know, ranging from how do we do better disease diagnostics, how do we bring better culturally competent health care, how do we bring better culturally competent health care, how do we flatten the cost curve.

We find these startups, we support them on their journey to scale their solutions so that, communities can benefit from their innovations, and and the impact that they can have. And, for us, it's all about innovation.

It's all about innovation ecosystems.

Part of what makes HPE's approach so effective is that they step into their social impact work with the intention of supporting the work that's already happening.

Their accelerator program is the epitome of this philosophy. To help spur innovation, HPE provides financial support and mentorship to nonprofits.

We launched several thematically focused accelerators in health and human rights and in climate, some of which we worked with external partners to deliver, some of which we ran and house ourselves. And so in the human rights space, we started in house. We brought the International Rescue Committee and UNICEF, and we took them through a three month program to help them on their digital transformation journey, which was, you know, a remarkable experience for us, hopefully, a remarkable experience for them.

In a climate space, you know, our our partners there are doing incredible work, and we work with great accelerators and incubators to do our climate, work. And for us, that's important because, as a reminder, only two percent of incubators and accelerators worldwide focus on climate change and and only twenty five of them located in developing economies. And so the funding landscape, the support ecosystem is inequitable. It's, you know, leaving lots of innovation on the table.

That's the hand that we are currently dealt with, and and that's what we're trying to change. So it it's it's going good. But at the same time, there's so much work to do, and we're excited for for what the future brings there.

The partnerships between organizations don't just exist at the institutional level. There are real people building relationships within this work. Often, those personal relationships anchor the broader partnerships.

For HPE, again, we are we're governed by a pretty tight strategy in health, climate, human rights, and supporting innovators. And and and there's a reason behind our thesis for why we, at least as a company, should focus on that and and and how we see ourselves in the broader ecosystem. In terms of what makes a nonprofit, ripe for partnership with HPE, I'm not sure if there is, you know, a a magic solution, but I'll say that what I typically look for and and the kinds of people that I appreciate working with are ones who are authentic and genuine. The philanthropy space can sometimes be transactional, and I don't particularly enjoy transactional relationships. I'm not sure if many people really enjoy transactional relationships.

And so in the first process and, you know, first conversation, I typically am pretty straight up on, do I think we can support you or do I think we can support you if I think we can support you to what ticket size I think we can support you, just so that, you know, I respect their time and and they are clear, as to what I'm able to bring to the table. I I value folks who are interested in not just the dollars, but a holistic relationship and, you know, how we can work together the ecosystem, how we can pull, again, not just cash, but in kind.

So more than, you know, just the checklist of things that folks have to fulfill in in order to be eligible, if you will, for funding, I'd almost say, build relationships and, start with the relationships. And and the truth is, I think, if you build relationships, people remember you, and then they will come to you if they're able to fund you instead of you having to ask them for funding because there is the trust developed and and and there is the the camaraderie.

One of the partnerships HPE has built is with our friends at Fast Forward who are also focusing on using tech to solve social problems.

In fact, Shannon Farley from Fast Forward joined us on a recent episode. If you haven't had the chance to listen, put it in your queue. Both Shannon and Fred talk about how key it is to find that shared mission.

But Fred has also found out how important it is to stay in conversation with potential partners even when strategies don't immediately align.

We've been working with FastForward for six years now. We just wrapped up our HP Accelerating Impact campaign, where we provide twenty five dollars to every team member to donate to a tech innovator within our portfolio, and fifty percent of our team members participated this year.

Love our relationship with FastForward.

The truth is we can't do this work alone. We need to work with others. And as we partner with different organizations like FastForward, what we're really trying to do is can we disrupt typical power dynamics? Can we introduce radical transparency in the, philanthropy process?

And, you know, beyond fast forward, probably not surprising, but I get tons of emails from folks interested to work with HPE and partner with HPE, some of whom we can probably support and some of whom likely fall outside the strategy that we developed for, you know, very particular reason. That being said, I always give folks a first call. I always say yes to a first introductory call. Even if I know that from an alignment perspective we are miles apart, I still give them a first call because I believe that we need to keep conversations open.

And even if I can't help a particular organization or or person, maybe there's someone in my network who's able to do that, and and that's part of the radical transparency and shifting of part dynamics that that I think we can do. The ITDRC example is is pretty exciting. It's an example of putting into practice how we developed our strategy, which is to look at community needs, which is necessary but insufficient.

We cross that on with what our team members care about, what our unique capabilities are to define where we should play, how we should win, and what job we should be doing.

And our team members, in in this case, in our Aruba business unit, our our networking business unit, they have been interested in supporting ITDRC's disaster response effort. And we have access points, in our business. And so what we did was we provide and we provide and and and currently still provide the IT DRC with networking equipment so that they can bring connectivity to communities disrupted by disasters. And and our team members volunteer and train on how to deploy our technology, go into the field to help deploy our technology.

Partnerships like these in which we're able to to pull together different folks and and interested parties, is is pretty magical, and and we love doing that.

For any company seeking to work in partnership with another organization, it's important to step into that relationship with humility. Rather than saying, here's what we're going to do, companies should ask candidly how they can help, being honest about their strengths and limitations.

The approach that we're taking at HPE is one of honesty or or at least I hope that's what we do in that the innovation journey is long, and HPE is, good at certain things and not good at others. So for us and our foundation, the company actually even, with the impact work we're doing, we're trying to identify really early stage folks. And to give them the support that they need, we fund accelerators and incubators to help them with their fundraising, their business model, their, their organizational development.

On a company side, we come in and say, if you have a need from a technology perspective, whether it's mentorship or actual hardware, what can we do to help you? But we know that even then, these two things are just part of the picture of what founders need. You know, the life of a founder can be lonely, can be stressful. So how can we connect them with resources related to mental health and build a community for them? We we know that financing is incredibly important, and we are not a bank or a financial institution. So how can we bring our customers to the table so that they can engage with these startups that we work with? And our whole mindset is that ecosystem and systems lens and that we know we can address one part of the picture.

How can we bring others on board to help with the other elements of what a founder needs, of what an innovator needs? And, you know, I I think that that honesty is is important and, important to make the world a better place, important to help these incredible leaders, grow and scale and succeed.

When HBE finds a nonprofit that they wanna partner with, they go beyond providing financial gifts. Their goal is to create a whole network of support. For them, that means inviting customers to be part of the work.

Part of it is a byproduct of the ticket sizes that we write. You know, we want to give cash, and part of it is, I think, our belief that we should do more and we can do more.

One thing that we do as well and a philosophy that we're implementing is if we are gonna fund a nonprofit, we're gonna find a customer to co fund with us.

Very rarely, if ever, do we make a grant without bringing one of our customers to the table. And I think it's just a belief that we wanna do this with others, and we need to do it with others. And our capital alone is not enough, and our partners deserve more. So these are, you know, some lenses that we that we bring to our work and, you know, as we try to work with with our friends, we try to help them in every way that we can.

I think a lot of companies overlook the power of bringing customers to the table in their social impact work, and that's a real missed opportunity for both the business and their nonprofits. Fred has found social impact programs to be a real point of connection between HPE and their customers.

The reality is we all usually care about the same set of issues. We care about making the world a better place.

We talk about business with our customers a lot of the time. Why not talk about making the world a better place at the same time? And that's what we're trying to do. And so with our partner, LabStart, we're co funding with the Department of Energy. We're co funding with friends from Autodesk Foundation, for example. The Department of Commerce is another supporter of Labstar. And for us, it just makes for a much more full relationship when these different actors are around the table.

And, you know, again, we're we're trying to do more of it.

It might surprise some to know that one of HPE's focus areas in their social impact work is modern slavery.

I find it heartening to see a corporation hewing in on a complex issue like this. It's not the kind of cause that will give the team an easy win that they can shout about on social media.

Real progress will take time. It will be incremental, and it will be difficult.

HPE and their partners will need to challenge a lot of existing beliefs and assumptions.

To me, HPE stands out as a great example of how companies can lean into complex social issues like modern slavery and make meaningful change. They're not trying to save the world. They're genuinely asking themselves, how can we do our part here? And then they're showing up and doing it.

According to WalkFree and the, International Labor Organization, there's an estimate of probably more than fifty million individuals trapped in various forms of modern slavery.

Women and children bear, you know, the disproportionate burden of of this crisis.

And that's a that's a really stark reality that we're living in. I think the reality also is that modern slavery as an issue isn't usually talked about. It's not necessarily the topic du jour, maybe because it's a heavier topic potentially, maybe because in some way or another, we are all benefiting, from the results of modern slavery and what we purchase to the services that we engage with, whether or not we are aware of it. And so we're trying to to really make a dent in the issue and and to do our part. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has always had a incredible record, of being a leader in human rights. Our our human rights team is incredibly fantastic and and and remarkable.

And over the years, we started to think beyond a typical supply chain compliance perspective.

What more do we need to do and what can we do?

And we took a look at survivors of modern slavery. And survivors, after exiting an instance of modern slavery, usually face a myriad of obstacles on their path to recovery and reintegration. You think they, you know, they need access to financial services, but they probably don't have a credit score or digital IDs or IDs, for example. You know, access to to meaningful employment can also be a challenge. And the challenges also cover social isolation, for example, housing.

And the realization hit that if we really want to make a difference in modern slavery, we also need to support survivors. And so we launched the supporting survivors of modern slavery challenge together with the antislavery collective, a incredible nonprofit headquartered in the United Kingdom.

And we ran this challenge together with MIT Solve, and it's rooted in our conviction that technology can play a role in revolutionizing support for survivors. And so if we use technology and if we help others use technology with ethical considerations, integrating survivor input in the innovation process. We really believe that technology can help us get closer to a solution to this complex goldfish.

As someone who thinks a lot about how technology can help solve some of the world's biggest problems, I'd love to see the work HPE is doing. What I appreciate most is that, as much as they focus on tech, they never lose sight of the people and the relationships at the heart of social impact work.

That's what's going to move the needle on big issues, companies taking a holistic view and then humbly asking what role they can play.

That's all from me today. Thanks for tuning in to Impact Audio, produced by your friends at Submittable.

Until next time.