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Elfenworks Foundation
In Harmony with Mills College

Mills College

Elfenworks in Harmony with Mills College of California

For over one hundred and fifty years Mills College has served as a pioneer in teaching women to be socially responsible, innovative, and creative leaders in society. Mills undergraduate women are well known for their commitment to justice, their interest in international affairs, their activism on behalf of others, and their desire to be involved in good works after graduation. We expect the institutional values that attract undergraduate women to Mills College to be the same values that shape the educational experience for graduate students at Mills.

Graduate School of Business and the Center for Responsible Business

In keeping with our forward-thinking mission, we were the first to support Mills College when it began its MBA program in 2000, with the establishment of the Elfenworks Lectureship on Leadership, Ethics and Entrepreneurship. In addition, our CEO serves on the external advisory board of the Graduate School of Business. Now, in 2008, we are pleased to announce leadership support for a new Center at the Graduate School of Business. The mission of the Center for Socially Responsible Business will be to advance the study and practice of socially responsible business, to promote the values of socially responsible business, to reach out to Bay area firms to form an alliance of companies associated with the Center, and to foster innovations in graduate business education regarding socially responsible business. The Center's philosophical roots are based on the attitudes of thinkers and businesspersons such as Dave Packard, co-founder of H-P, who said a company exists not simply to make money, but to make a contribution to society. The Center focuses on examining how businesses can improve social conditions in practical ways that do not harm, and may even help, their bottom line; that is, how businesses can do well financially by doing good socially. Toward this end, the Center promotes the integration of ethical principles of justice and fairness into business decision-making. It also advances the study of how business activities affect human welfare and the natural environment, and vice versa. Finally, the Center aims to align business interests with broader social goals. For example, the Center promotes the discovery and implementation of business policies and practices that reduce disease, hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, that improve human and civil rights, and that sustain the natural environment.

Annual Conference and Lecture Series - The Center will sponsor an annual conference to bring together scholars, practitioners, policy makers, and students to share the latest developments in socially responsible business practice. This conference will also disseminate new knowledge through the media to the public and the wider business community. The Center will also sponsor a public lecture series, to provide a platform for visionaries and leaders in the field to inspire and educate a broader public about socially responsible business.

Web Presence - The Center will be home to a site that provides a permanent repository of information about socially responsible business. This site is intended to reach well beyond giving a public face to the Center and program, to evolve into a portal for Socially Responsible business, providing lists of services, dissemination of online educational material, an intellectual clearinghouse for case information and research, and a place for practitioners to share best practices. The site will also serve as home to a regular electronic publication (a compilation of relevant news items and a digest of research findings, with a spotlight on Center-funded research and activities). These digital information services will give the Center a national or even global presence. The site will also burnish the image of the Mills Graduate School of Business, reinforcing the unique niche it occupies and facilitating recruitment of high-caliber students who seek innovative leadership development.

Summer Workshop - The Center will extend its influence to the realm of executive education by offering a Summer Workshop in Socially Responsible Business. This initiative will permit an entire generation of business executives to "retrofit" their experience with new perspectives on the social implications and potential of business leadership. The workshop will target mid-career professionals and industry leaders and buttress their capacity to reconcile social and commercial objectives. This program will also provide essential inter-generational networking opportunities for Mills graduates and expand awareness of the Center and its mission in senior management circles.

Elfenworks support will establish and sustain the Center for at least its first three years and perhaps five, during which time additional funding will be sought to ensure the Center can continue its core mission of developing future generations of socially responsible business leaders. Funding will be used for curricular innovation, an annual conference and public lecture series, an enhanced web presence, and a dedicated Director. Below, some feedback we have received from President Janet Holmgren and Dean Nancy Thornborrow:

"Your early and steadfast support of the MBA program has been instrumental to its success. Mills is committed to advancing women in all aspects of society and your many continuing efforts in expanding the Graduate School of Business underscore the importance of such a program. I know that your ongoing devotion and high level of involvement will help us position this program to make an impact in addressing the shortage of women in professional leadership roles." --Janet Holmgren President

"In 2001, the very first year of the Mills MBA program, this was our first major gift, endowing one of our required core courses, Ethics, Leadership and Entrepreneurship. An endowed gift means that the Mills Graduate School of Business will always have as a requirement that all of its students study ethical behavior in business and make it a priority in their professional lives. As you may recall, 2001 was a time of great national concern over corporate scandal and corruption. (Elfenworks) saw the significance of an ethics requirement and made this gift when our program had only 12 students and many MBA programs were not even requiring that their students take a course in ethics. This foresight and generosity were extraordinarily important to those of us undertaking the establishment of a new professional degree program focused on creating more women business leaders. The confidence demonstrated in our ability to achieve this goal was extremely significant in the first year of our program as it helped to validate what we were doing and inspired others to become involved. I will forever be grateful." --Nancy Thornborrow, Dean

Elisabeth Siekhaus "An Die Musik: German Poetry and Music" Lectureship

We endowed this interdisciplinary course, co-taught by Mills faculty from the German and Music departments, which gives students a deep understanding of the connection between classical music and its roots in German culture. It includes materials from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, highlighting the 19th century when dramatic and lyric poems by Goethe, his contemporaries and followers were set to music by composers such as Schubert, Schumann and many others. The resulting new [chamber music] genre of "Lied" is flourishing still in today's concert halls the world over.

Other Support Provided