The Aspen Institute

In the face of COVID-19, global inequities are being laid bare and further exacerbated, devastating some of the most vulnerable and low-income communities. Immediately, nonprofit and social impact leaders who serve those disproportionately at risk stepped up in unprecedented ways, working on the frontlines often with a lack of resources to do so.

As the nation reels from the one-two punch of Covid-19 and long-simmering social and racial unrest, many of America’s large corporations have engaged in public soul-searching. Looking for solutions to address income-, wealth- and health-inequality in distressed communities across the country. While some companies have pledged to spend billions in philanthropic dollars to address these issues, the nation’s largest companies are capable of developing an even more powerful strategy by partnering with minority-owned businesses to generate sustainable local wealth, economic opportunity, and jobs. Each year, these corporate giants spend hundreds of billions of dollars with suppliers on goods and services to run their global operations. They buy everything from IT hardware and software to advertising and public relations to security services to call center support.  By consciously and intentionally deploying their existing procurement power for community benefit; sourcing for their supply chain from diverse companies; and refocusing their efforts from simply counting spend to making spend count, partnership rather than philanthropy is a way for corporations to transform communities.

In a world filled with increasing uncertainty and unknowns, how do we productively plan for the future? While we can't predict, we can learn how to "rehearse" it to be more prepared. Scenario planning is a technique that helps teams have well-designed conversations about the future, especially when they face major uncertainty and change.