Stakeholder Management and the Endangered Wildlife Trust

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) had been in existence for 35 years and up until recently had grown organically by taking on new projects as and when they arose. While this had had the advantage of the EWT maintaining its relevance, the EWT had lost focus as a result. A new strategy was developed in 2008 before the impact of the financial credit crisis and the resulting economic downturn. The downturn had affected the amount of funds the EWT received and as such, it was struggling to continue with all its initiatives and projects. Fortunately, the pressure on companies to invest in social responsibility initiatives continued to grow. The CEO of the EWT was contemplating whether or not to change the EWT's fundraising strategy by making it more liberal in its policy of accepting corporate donations in light of the economic downturn caused by the international credit crisis.

At the end of the case discussion, students should have a better understanding of the importance of performing a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, the process of completing a stakeholder analysis, the value of understanding the dynamics of various stakeholders and the application of tools to make business decisions that have an ethical element to them.