I'm in Kingston for 2 days participating as a speaker and panelist in the 3rd Annual CSR Weekend hosted by the Centre for Responsible Leadership at the Queen's School of Business. Here are two things I learned yesterday.

Partnerships between corporations and non-profit organizations are a cornerstone of effective corporate social responsibility programs. Executed properly, partnerships can increase engagement among employees and external stakeholders, and provide corporations with credibility, new communications opportunities, and new sales channels.

The recent announcement of Future Shop's donation of $50,000 for computer labs (or as they are to be known "Future Leaders Tech Labs") to each of two Toronto schools has become a touchstone for commentary across the country.

As I've written about before, I think partnerships with NGOs are the foundation of corporate community programs. However, these key relationships often involve significant quantitative investment but have largely qualitative benefits/outcomes that are typically difficult to benchmark and leverage.