Education.  Math and science.  K-12.  All are common targets of corporate philanthropy.  So, in a world where corporations want to differentiate themselves through social impact, why do so many resort to the same traditional strategies?

National Instruments (NI) is bucking the trend.  They have teamed up to deliver the Lego League World Festival, a team competition of student-designed Lego robots.  Each team has an NI mentor (boosting employee engagement) and uses NI products and software (building awareness among future decision-makers).

NI was hesitant to commit at first, saying "We don't do toys."  But when they realized that they and Lego were both trying to support science and engineering education (targeting a shared outcome), the partnership made perfect sense.  Now the question is who else is ready to step up to the plate.  "How do we get this in Chicago and Oklahoma City?  NI's not there, we can't be the ones to do it, but someone should."

You can read more in the Stanford Social Innovation Review's article "Clicking for Smart CSR."