Author: Lesa Ukman

How’s this for irony: NFL great Colin Kaepernick is worth more without the league than if he had never been locked out. Kaepernick’s value as a cultural influencer, educator, brand partner, philanthropist and creator of economic opportunity for Black and Brown communities, exceeds that of the NFL itself.  Read more

Recently, I’ve been interviewed by several podcasters as well as several authors about why I created the ProSocial Valuation Service. Here’s the gist of my answers.  Read more

“Climate risk is investment risk,” wrote BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in his 2020 letter to shareholders.

A couple of years after I started IEG, two major events occurred which put the then fledgling practice of sponsorship on the map: the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and renovation of the Statue of Liberty, which began in 1982 and finished in 1986.  Read more

I recently conducted a Sponsor Summit for about 60 partners of @ArtsQuest, producer of more than dozen festivals including Bethlehem Musikfest (musikfest.org/), the country’s largest free music festival and developer of SteelStacks arts and cultural campus built on a site abandoned by Bethlehem Steel.  Read more

Look at most city budgets and you see core assets, such as parks and green space, treated as a cost.

Because green space is not a profit center, we overlook its importance to a functioning society.  Read more

Pop icons, sports organizations, festival impresarios, athletes and celebrities have been using their reach and influence to raise money for social good for more than five decades.  Read more

The decisions we make depend on what we measure, how good our measurements are, and how well our measures are understood. If our measurements are flawed, decisions will be distorted.  Read more

Businesses that mean more, make more. And sponsors which dedicate a portion of their activation budget to improving people and planet almost always out-perform sponsors without a purpose-based overlay.Uniting brands with fans and the sports, festivals and entertainment they love around collective action for social good has more power than any of these pieces on their own.  Read more

The Market for Good Is Skyrocketing. Values are shifting. It is no longer enough to be the best in the world; organizations must now also be best for the world.  Read more