Hello and welcome to Working It.
With a water temperature of 5°C (41°F), this is the best time of year to swim outdoors. The cold puts us in a state of euphoria 😍.
Why am I boring you with this? (Q: “How can you tell if someone is an outdoor swimmer? A: Because they’ll probably tell you.”) It’s because swimmers live within the seasons: we immerse ourselves in the changes. I often think of the concept of “wintering”accepting that cyclical seasonal differences affect us, as human beings. In the darkest months we take shelter* and perhaps can enter a slower phase at work. At least until the Christmas holidays start🤶🏽.
*Rivals It has certainly brightened up my rainy afternoons 😳.
Read on for a follow-up to the corporate charitable giving crisis we reported here a few weeks ago. AND Dear jonathan advises a graduate who doesn’t know how to get a mentor.
Send an email about anything related to work or your ice baths: isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Corporate donations: good news for once
Earlier this month I wrote on the decline in corporate donations to charities in the UK. The tl;dr is that the Charities Aid Foundation found that donations from FTSE 100 companies have decreased by 34 per cent in the last decade, and that three in four companies outside the FTSE did not donate at all in 2023. (If there was a seasonal Scrooge emoji, I’d use it here.)
I’m following up because there was a great reader response to the newsletter. I think the one topic that engages Working It readers the most is managing Gen Z staff (oh, that old nonsense 🌰).
Part of the problem may lie in the mismatch of expectations between businesses and charities. As one senior charity sector leader wrote: “I have noticed not only a reduction in donations, but also a growing preference for pro bono rather than cash donations.” Sometimes, they say, this involvement provides useful skills, but it can also lead to “charity staff feeling patronized because too often private sector employees talk down to them as if they were simply ‘lovely people’. A new term, “business explanation” has become very popular in the sector 👀.”
While no one has an immediate solution to the problems of funding and expectations, it clearly makes a difference when business leaders take a vested interest in corporate giving and make it a priority, as well as building long-term relationships with charities.
At OakNorth, a digital lender, Rishi Khoslaco-founder and CEO, says: “Motivation comes from the fact that Joel [Perlman, co-founder] and I always wanted to support communities; We did that in our previous business and wanted to continue it at OakNorth, which, as a bank focused on empowering entrepreneurs, is driven by a strong social purpose. So, from a very early stage, when we reached cash flow break-even (one year after launch), we started donating. “Then we formalized it in 2018 and then added 1 percent of team time in 2023.”
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs runs the Analyst Impact Fund, a annual world competition for younger analysts, who form teams to go through pitch rounds and win cash (maximum prize of $250,000💰) for the selected nonprofit. It’s a big deal internally: More than 700 analysts start the process each year, and four teams make it to the live finals, where they present to CEO David Solomon and company leadership, plus 2,500 employees watching live. (Then there is no pressure 😰.)
This year’s winners launched billiona non-profit organization that develops software that works offline to teach numeracy and literacy skills to students in Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.
I used to be insecure about merit or ethics. – from competitive pitch events for charity, but I changed my mind after attending The financing network events in London. These are live crowdfunding evenings: chosen charities have six minutes to present their proposal, the public has six minutes to ask questions and then there is a live donation session led by an expert. While some charities raise more than others that night, all are on donors’ radars for the future, and the atmosphere is one of support and celebration.
I don’t know what the future of corporate giving will be, but ideas like the Goldman pitch competition 🏆 and the TFN model make it exciting and compelling, as well as developing staff teamwork and presentation skills.
In a sentence: The key to boosting charitable giving could be a combination of greater commitment to true long-term partnerships with charities and creating programs that energize and interest business staff. (More ideas are welcome.)
Do you want more? He “Venture philanthropy” model at Impetusa charitable foundation that supports organizations that work with young people, is an interesting innovation in the way pro bono partnerships work.
This week on the Working It podcast
Are you lucky at work? My colleague Emma Jacobs wrote a hit column on the topic, noting that many of us are reluctant to accept (for example) the role of privilege in our career success. However, there are many things we can do to maximize our chances of having that lucky break, and in this week’s episode from the podcast I talk about it with Emma, and with Tomás Chamorro-Premuzicinnovation director of the Manpower group and professor of business psychology at UCL and Columbia University. (None of my guests were impressed with my habit of looking for luck in the stars through the Co-Star app 🔮).
Dear Jonathan 📩
The problem: “I hear and read a lot about the importance of finding a mentor 👩🏻🏫 but I don’t really know why it would be useful or how to do it. I’m not very comfortable reaching out to strangers out of the blue, and why would they want to mentor me anyway? Graduate, 20 years
Jonathan Black’s advice: A mentor is a critical friend who can guide, suggest, and challenge you when seeking input, usually for career decisions.
Typically, a mentor is outside the organization, or at least outside their department. It can help if they have knowledge 🔍 of your industry or organization so that any advice they give is informed and useful. The best mentor: relationships between mentees will be based on trust and respect; Typically, a mentor will have a few more years of experience in the workplace, so they may have seen the problem the mentee is facing before. You may seek out (or gradually acquire) several mentors throughout your career, perhaps bringing different skills and knowledge to the table.
In terms of finding a mentor, these relationships can develop organically, without ever being specifically arranged or requested. You can chat with someone at a conference, in another department, or outside of work and ask them about a topic. Later, you could follow up and ask if you can talk about other topics. Some exchanges like this run their course and stop, while others continue over the years 🗓️.
Some organizations, including universities, run formal mentoring programs, introducing people to mentors they have hired (perhaps senior people in the organization or alumni). Signing up for such a program may help answer your question about how to get started, as the organizers will try to find you.
It is important that both mentor and mentee understand the limits of help: mentors generally do not arrange to find mentees jobs, although they may point out roles or people to contact.
As to why anyone else would want to help, it’s the same way you would help others who seek your advice. Basically, it’s flattering to be asked for advice. And when you become a mentor, you’ll have learned what makes a relationship useful.
Jonathan Black is director of the careers service at the University of Oxford. Email your career dilemmas to dear.jonathan@ft.com. Next week: In-office therapy.
Five notable stories from the world of work
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Citigroup cuts promotions as it seeks to reform the bank: There is disappointment for thousands of bank employees who hoped to stay in their current roles but get more money and a better job. Citigroup has suspended some of these “in-role” promotions, the Financial Times’ Stephen Gandel reports.
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Climate COPs and the art of the deal: Pilita Clark was at the COP29 climate conference and has some advice on the types of negotiation tactics used at these big events. It’s very different from sales tactics, he writes.
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The Age of the Partial Outsider: It can be an advantage to stay a little outside the mainstream, writes Janan Ganesh, quoting Donald Trump as “New York but not Manhattan, urban but not urban, rich but coming from the construction game rather than refined finance.”
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Mass X-odus: professionals leave Elon Musk’s network: Emma Jacobs talks to people who have enjoyed using X for work, but have now switched to Bluesky, or are sticking around. (Includes an additional quote from Count Binface, a familiar face on the UK election scene.)
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What America can learn from ‘Wicked’: One of my favorite Financial Times writers, Patti Waldmeir, sees lessons for fractured American politics and society in Glinda and Elphaba’s unlikely friendship in the hit film. I will always have room for that.
one more thing
Author Nick Hornby (fever point, about a child etc) has a Substack newsletter, Notes from a fancovering “music, books, movies, work, football, television, etc.” It’s a hidden gem if, like me, you love receiving informed reading recommendations and playlists. Nick wrote recently about a 1991 album that wasn’t a hit, 24 years of hungerby Eg and Alice. He describes it as a “minor classic”; It can’t be an important classic, he says, because “no one has heard of it.” Funnily enough, I bought it in 1991, played it for years, and then completely forgot about it. The album is a delight (re)discover — I hope you agree.
Get into the festive professional spirit. . . 🎄
It’s almost time for Career Collective’s live podcast event in London on Monday 2 December, where I’ll be discussing job trends for 2025, AI anxiety, how to get a pay rise and much more, alongside Bruce Daisley from Eat Sleep Work RepeatJimmy McLoughlin Jimmy’s Future Jobs and Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper of Wavy runs.
Subscribers to the FT Working It newsletter get a 50 per cent “family and friends” discount (taking the cost to £22) when book via Eventbrite. The income will Beama charity that offers work to homeless people and refugees, and Scopewhich supports students from low-income backgrounds into top-level graduate careers.