Feb 1st Post

I am pretty much done with the quantitative analysis. I am heading towards qualitative analysis which includes 2 parts: a psychology piece and  an interview with a business leader to find out why people donate and how to encourage this behavior in the community. I am in the process of writing up the psychology piece which will be published in the social enterprise website later on. This piece includes different factors that contribute to altruism, such as the social exchange theory. I also met with Ms Bendall to discuss this topic more in depth. For the interview piece, I am in the midst of contacting potential business leaders. I am reaching out through my parents' connections. My goal is to find at least one person to interview over spring break in Hong Kong. Below is a letter that I wrote and sent to a manager in Microsoft Hong Kong in hopes to get an interview:
Dear:
Hope this email finds you well. My name is Joycelyn Yip, and I am a Grade 12 high school student who is attending a boarding school called Emma Willard School in New York. I am currently working on a school project relating to corporate philanthropy and I would like to ask if you are available for an interview on this subject. Since last summer, I have been interning at a social enterprise in Hong Kong known as “Sodata Analytics Foundation” started by several UChicago’s Booth School of Business MBA graduates. The goal of this non profit social venture is to make a positive market influence on the corporate philanthropy culture by way of data analytics of businesses’ donating behavior and promotions. Through their annual public event, they give these companies who have demonstrated a high level of social responsibility a greater recognition in the marketplace, which hopefully would inspire more enterprises to follow suit. At the same time, the public would also have a better understanding of their corporate social responsible activities.
In my internship in the summer, I helped build the database on the charity works on each year donations made by the listed companies in Hong Kong. I collected data as well as performed quantitative analysis on the data. In my final year school project, I am extending my study in this area to look into the qualitative aspect of the corporate philanthropy culture in Hong Kong.  Through conducting interviews with companies which have shown great commitment to the betterment of our community, I hope to obtain new insights about the rationale, beliefs, motivation, satisfaction, and/or challenges and obstacles behind the company’s charitable commitment. The objective of my project is to make corporate philanthropy behavior a nudge so that more people in need in our society can be benefited, especially with Hong Kong experiencing such vast unequal distribution of wealth. We can show the society the impact we are able to create through philanthropy and can inspire more business leaders to do the same.
Because Microsoft has demonstrated excellence in corporate philanthropy, I am writing to ask for an interview sometime between March 19th and 30th, which is when I will be in Hong Kong for my school’s Spring Break holiday. I am interested in knowing what motivates the company’s decision to donate and how successful these philanthropic projects have been, and how they have impacted the society positively. I believe that the interview can help inspire more corporate philanthropy behavior and together, we can make a difference. I look forward to hearing from you.

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