tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11475376777378355572024-03-08T05:08:39.981-05:00Reimagining CSRJessica Hubbard explores innovations and trends in corporate social responsibility.Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-47232859479023327642013-04-17T22:23:00.000-04:002013-04-17T22:23:30.640-04:00Companies Work to #HelpBoston<br />
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Things aren't really back to normal yet here in Boston. My office was open today, but the streets on two sides of the building are closed. I went to a new café for lunch because all my favorites are still shut. My friends who live right at the site of the second bomb - whose apartment a bunch of us were in at the time of Monday's events - are still staying with friends. The streets around my office, a block from Copley Square, are crowded by oddly quiet.</span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One thing that is normal, though, is the outpouring of support that we've come to expect in light of a traumatic event. This is most evident, of course, in the tremendous efforts of the first responders, who certainly saved many lives on Monday. It's evident in the #</span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BostonHelp</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and #</span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">PrayforBoston</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> hashtags on Twitter and in the tributes to the city that have taken over my Facebook feed for the last few days. And of course, it's evident in the way the corporate community has leapt into action.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Here are the trends I've been seeing in the corporate response to the explosions at Monday's Boston Marathon. </span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the immediate aftermath of the explosions, I saw a number of companies jump in to offer the assets they had available on hand, in order to serve immediate needs. Google immediately launched its Google Person Finder service, to help people at the event communicate to people elsewhere that they were safe. El </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pelon</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taqueria</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> was one of a number of area restaurants that offered displaced individuals a place to go, along with free food and free </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">wifi</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">; </span></span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.boston.com/thingstodo/gotoit/2013/04/hub_restaurants.html" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">several restaurants</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in the area surrounding the crime scene continue to offer free food to first responders. </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AirBnB</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and a number of airlines announced on Twitter that they were waiving fees for people making last-minute travel changes due to the events, and Pooch Hotel, which boards dogs, tweeted that first responders could board for their animals free of charge so they could focus on relief efforts. A local yoga studio tweeted that classes would be free on Tuesday, and two major local museums were also free that day - all three emphasized that they wanted to provide an opportunity for reflection and healing.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One immediate response that I found striking was the number of companies that reached out to inspire and support their customers or employees. My company has sent out a series of emails our employees to keep everyone up to date on the status of our Boston headquarters (which was closed for the Patriots' Day holiday), to share resources for employees in need, and to comfort employees and begin the process of healing together. I think that was really important, but it's also something I expect of a well-run company. What I didn't anticipate was the number of companies that reached out to me as an customer with a similar message. The first such message I received was from Marathon Sports, whose Boylston Street sporting goods store was impacted by the explosions. The email, with the subject line "Our City Is Strong," focused on the feelings the company's employees and so many customers are experiencing, the company's pride in its staff for the way they comported themselves during the crisis, and a commitment to move forward with the community - the Boston community and the running community - stronger than ever. The email also provided links to relevant services, including places to donate, the missing persons hotline, and the police tips hotline. I received similar emails from my gym and </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">CitySports</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> (another sporting goods store), both located within a few blocks of the explosion. (I should probably note that I am unfortunately not as sporty as my inbox suggests.) </span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">I have also noticed that quite a few companies are hosting fundraisers to benefit victims of the explosions. </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://boston.eater.com/archives/2013/04/17/20-local-restaurants-donating-tomorrow-night.php" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">More than 50 local restaurants</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> are donating a portion of tonight's (Wednesday's) proceeds to the </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.thegreghillfoundation.org/" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">Greg Hill Foundation</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">, which will use the funds to benefit victims. A group of breweries in the area are hosting a </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-brewery-owner-comes-up-with-plan-to-help-Boston-bombing-victims.html" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">fundraising event</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> tonight, as well. </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.ruelala.com/event/71563" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">RueLaLa is selling a tshirt</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> that read "Tough Proud Brave Free Boston" and donating all net proceeds to the Emergency Medicine Fund at Massachusetts General Hospital. </span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">A few companies are also soliciting cash donations on behalf of recovery efforts. Technology Underwriting Greater Good, an initiative "dedicated to bringing together technology companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists to help young people realize their full potential", </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="https://www.fundraise.com/technology-supports-victims-of-boston-marathon-bombing" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">has raised</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> over $153,000 so far. The New England Patriots Charitable Foundation is raising money for the One Fund Boston (details below); the Kraft Family, which owns the Patriots, is matching donations up to $100,000. Similarly, </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LevelUp</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, the mobile payments company, </span></span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/04/16/get-help-give-help-boston-tech-reacts-to-marathon-bombings/" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">will match funds</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> donated through its up, up to $26,200. The company has also enabled users to donate the coupons they earn to recover efforts. Currently, </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">LevelUp</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> is directing funds to Children's Hospital Boston and the Red Cross.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">We are starting to see companies making direct donations to nonprofits involved in responding to the explosions. Most of this activity has centered around the </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://onefundboston.org/" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">One Fund Boston</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">, established yesterday by </span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Boston Mayor Tom </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Menino</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and Massachusetts Governor </span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Deval</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Patrick. The One Fund, which will "</span></span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: #231f20; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013," </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://onefundboston.org/pdf/theonefundboston.pdf" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">was created with</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: #231f20; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> an initial $1 million donation from John Hancock, a major marathon sponsor. In the twenty-four hours since the Fund was created, it has </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2013/04/the_one_fund_boston_tops_7m_ken_feinberg_to_distribute_funds" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">collected more than $7 million in donations</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: #231f20; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">, including $1 million donations from AT&T, Bain Capital, and Partners HealthCare. The One Fund is also raising money from individual donors, with more than 8,500 contributing so far. </span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw similar funds after 9/11 and other events, will be the Fund's administrator. </span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Separately, the Bruins and the National Hockey League </span></span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-on-hockey/22091426/bruins-nhl-to-donate-250000-after-boston-marathon-bombings" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">are donating $250,000</span></span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> - $100,000 from Jeremy Jacobs, the team's owner, and $50,000 each from the NHL, the NHL Player's Association, and TD Garden (the facility where the Bruins play). The Bruins are also donating tickets to first responders and planned to honor victims and responders during tonight's game. </span></span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/twitter-oneboston-promoted_n_3095968.html" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Twitter has donated</span></span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: white; color: #262626; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> its top promote tweet spot to the hashtag #</span><span class="SpellingError SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; background-image: url(data:image/gif; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">OneBoston</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, which people are using to highlight inspirational stories and charitable efforts; the value of this donation (that is, the amount a company would pay for the spot for a day) is $200,000.</span></span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Resources</span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Has your company contributed? Share your activities with other corporate donors by </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="https://chamberbclc.wufoo.com/forms/business-disaster-response-entry-form/" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">submitting it</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to the US Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center, which is compiling a donations tracker. I'd also love it if you leave a note in the comments.</span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Looking for direction on your company's efforts? The </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://disasterphilanthropy.org/" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">Center for Disaster Philanthropy</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> provides</span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> advice on when, where, and how to give in the aftermath of disasters. </span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Business Civic Leadership Center also provides </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://bclc.uschamber.com/issue/preparedness-response-and-recovery" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">a number of resources</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to companies seeking to support disaster relief efforts, and the Council on Foundations publishes "</span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.cof.org/files/documents/international_programs/disasterguide.pdf" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">Disaster Grantmaking</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">: A Practical Guide for Foundations and Corporations." It also provides resources via a </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.cof.org/events/Disasters.cfm" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">Disaster Resource Center</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">. The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy has published a </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/research/thought-leadership/research-reports/disaster-response.html" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">research report</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> on lessons learned from past corporate disaster relief efforts. </span><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Some time ago, I wrote an </span><a class="Hyperlink SCX172742934" href="http://cwop.convio.net/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6711&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1461" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" xml:lang="EN-US">article</span></a><span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> for onPhilanthropy.com laying out the steps in developing a corporate disaster relief plan. The article is old, but I think it's still relevant.</span><span class="EOP SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span class="TextRun SCX172742934" style="-webkit-nbsp-mode: normal !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">If you have tips, recommendations, advice, etc., please share it in the comments.</span></div>
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Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-10720313986937499252013-04-12T11:29:00.000-04:002013-04-12T11:30:01.556-04:00Make Every Job a CSR Job<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">A few months ago, <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/01/alums-urge-volunteerism/">I
had the opportunity to speak</a> at Harvard's <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/01/public-interested/">"Public
Interested?" conference</a>, an event for students interested in exploring
public interest careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was honored
to speak during the Big Public Service Ideas session, moderated by Sonal Shah,
</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">former director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the White House, alongside amazing people like Jarrett Barrios, CEO of American Red Cross of Eastern
Massachusetts, and Julia Silverman, Co-Founder of Uncharted Play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Each speaker was asked to address the
question, "What is your big idea in public interest?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No pressure, right??<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After grappling with the idea, I decided to
address a topic that, while perhaps not in my own career self-interest (!), is
something that I feel strongly about, and I suspect that a number of you do,
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here's an adapted version of my
speech:</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">My big idea today
is that we must make all jobs corporate social responsibility jobs.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Corporate social responsibility, or CSR,
goes by many names - shared value, corporate citizenship, strategic corporate
philanthropy, corporate social innovation, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter what the buzz word, I believe CSR
boils down to one simple idea - that companies should <b>e</b>ngage with the
social issues that create risks and opportunities for their business, and that,
by doing so, they can produce value for both the company and the wider
community.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Evolution of CSR</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Historically, CSR - really just corporate
philanthropy at the time - was very much held apart from the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The business made the money, and then the
company's foundation or corporate giving group gave a little of it away - most
likely to whatever nonprofits the CEO and senior executives found particularly
compelling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Starting in the 80s and 90s, corporate
philanthropy became more strategic, recognizing the opportunity to build
business value while also building social value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Companies particularly focused on driving HR
and PR goals through corporate giving and employee engagement - for example,
partnering with a cause that reinforces their brand positioning or working to
increase employee loyalty by creating opportunities for employee volunteerism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In about the past 10-15 years, companies
started developing a broader understanding of corporate social responsibility,
recognizing that they bring much more to the table than just cash and employee
time, that they could in fact re-engineer their business practices to drive
social impact in a way that had a positive impact on the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is when you started seeing a
significantly increased focus on sustainability, for instance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, some companies have made an effort
to develop products that meet an unmet social need while also generating
profits.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the past couple
of years, Professor Michael Porter and Marc Kramer, both thought leaders in
this space, have refined or reframed this field by introducing the concept of
shared value, which they define as "creating economic value in a way that
also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges,"
and which they say must be at the center of the business, not marginalized into
a nice-to-have, bolted-on CSR department.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Business Unit Ownership</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As we follow this progression, we see that,
to fulfill its potential, CSR must be owned by the business units, not by the
CSR group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the company is going to
deliver social value by fully aligning social value with business goals, then
it has to be driven by the person who owns the business goals.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I'm experiencing
this right now in my role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm
responsible for making sure that our company has a responsible paper sourcing
policy - we're a publisher (among other things), so one of the biggest ways we
impact the environment is through choices we make about paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've very quickly found, though, that I can't
drive this conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm not the
expert in paper - my colleagues in procurement are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can draft a policy, but I won't be there
for the hundreds of decisions, large and small, that constitute its
execution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, I need my colleague
in procurement to drive the development of the policy, and also to feel a
strong sense of commitment to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can
raise the issue, I can make connections between various relevant stakeholders,
and I can be cheerleader, but this can't be my policy.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This means that
employees in every department not only have the opportunity to deliver social
value through their day jobs, but that they in fact must take responsibility
for the company's social impact.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Implications for Job Opportunities</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What does this mean
for young people considering a career in CSR?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It means that, no matter where your passion lies, you have the
opportunity to change the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you
passionate about investing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go to a
venture capital fund and look for investment opportunities in companies that
have a positive social impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you
obsessed with operations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about
how your company can reduce its environmental impact, or how you can include
marginalized populations in your supply chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do you love products?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you
always have to have the latest and greatest gadget?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a job in product development and think
not only about how to delight your customers, but also about how to address the
real health, educational, or other social challenges in their lives. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Implications for CSR Departments</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of course, this
changes the jobs of people like me, who work in traditional CSR
departments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means that my job should
no longer be about carrying out the company's social impact, but rather about
empowering my colleagues to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">CSR professionals must become trainers and
educators, inspiring their colleagues to take ownership of social impact and
providing them with the context and information they need to make a
difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should be internal
consultants, advising the business units on CSR strategy, and connectors
between stakeholders both internal and external.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should essentially be responsible for
doing business development for the concept of CSR within the company, growing
the firm's social impact footprint.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This evolution also increases our reliance
on CSR thought leaders, the professors, researchers, consultants, and other thinkers
that advance and evangelize for the field.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Implications for Schools</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This approach to
CSR has implications for colleges and business schools, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to introduce these concepts to
students early, to let them know that this kind of thinking is even
possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Schools are indeed
increasingly raising issues of corporate social responsibility, of the ethics
of supply chain and environmental issues, but I think it's still rare for them
to address corporate social opportunity, of the benefits companies derive from
engaging in social issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course,
these messages should not primarily be segregated into classes that are
specifically about CSR, but should be integrated, both explicitly and subtly,
into a wide range of classes on business and other disciplines.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">So what should a we all do today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'd encourage you to think creatively and
ambitiously about your career choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No matter where your passions lie, you have the opportunity - and indeed
the responsibility - to drive social impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But you have to take personal responsibility for that opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least at this stage of the game, no one
will ask you, "What did you do this year to align our business's goals
with its social impact?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's a
question you have to ask yourselves.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 2.0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">At the same time, it's a question that you
should ask of your employers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
major proof points that companies use to justify CSR is that employees expect
it, that in fact demand it of their employers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Show your employers, and even your prospective employers that, not only
do you want to know about how the company is having a social impact, but that
you want to be part of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell them you
think you can do it while also improving the health of the business - and then
prove it to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Join me in making every job a CSR job.</span></div>
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Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-9294294879900643532013-04-10T17:43:00.000-04:002013-04-10T17:43:00.044-04:00CSR Practitioners: Connecting the Dots within Your Company
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<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
How do you connect
the dots on social impact within your company?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How do you break down silos and break through the fog to identify and
leverage the cool things happening in different departments and offices?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
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<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I've had two
experiences recently that have made me mull this issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm currently working on our paper policy,
setting goals for how we can improve our environmental impact by improving the
choices we make around paper procurement and usage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I started digging, I discovered that,
actually, we're already doing a pretty awesome job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have growth areas, of course, but this is
absolutely on our procurement team's radar, and they've been doing great
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, our distribution
centers have been implementing some wonderful initiatives, the teams that
handle excess inventory have been really responsible about how they deal with
it, our facilities team thinks a lot about this, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's obviously great - individually, these
groups are all having a terrific impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Collectively, though, I think we've been missing an opportunity -
certainly an opportunity to tell our story more effectively, but also the
chance to bring these groups together, to leverage their work to make the whole
more than the sum of the parts.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I had a similar
experience a few months ago, when I was filling out a survey by an advocacy
organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The previous year, we
hadn't scored very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This past year,
our score shot up, in part because I dug up a lot more information than had
been available to the person who filled it out the year before - these were
things we'd been doing all along, but that we hadn't reported on previously,
because we didn't have access to the right information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like with the paper policy work, it required
collaborating with a range of colleagues across a variety of departments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many cases, it also required that I
reframe the questions in a way that made sense to my colleagues - they were
written in a way that made sense to me as a CSR practitioner, but not
necessarily to a benefits coordinator or a publicist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pulling all this information together not
only mitigated a reputational risk by helping us avoid another low score, but
also gave me a clearer picture of where the company is on this issue and,
therefore, where our growth opportunities lie. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This makes me wonder
about all the other instances in which I'm not making the connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What great opportunities are out there that
I'm not leveraging because I'm seeing a data point here or an instance there,
and I can't see how they fit together into something compelling?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this is a particular issue for CSR
practitioners, particularly as more companies evolve to a shared value
approach, because so much of the work we do requires significant collaboration
with other business units.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many
cases, we aren't carrying out the activities at all, but rather influencing or
spotlighting or helping the people who do.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
How do you connect
the dots within your organization?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are
there particular habits or practices you implement to make these
connections?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently, my team has been
thinking a lot about internal networking - for instance, we're each reaching
out to at least two colleagues a month for informal get-to-know-you chats, to
learn more about their areas of the business and to share how we think our work
intersects with theirs, and then we're reporting back to one another at our
monthly meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm hopeful that this
will help, but I know it isn't enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What else would you recommend we try?</div>
Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-42534523266728350152011-11-03T02:57:00.000-04:002011-11-03T02:57:02.872-04:00Creating Shared Value – Tips for Making the Case in Your Company<div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to present as part of an FSG webinar entitled <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.fsg.org/tabid/191/ArticleId/450/Default.aspx?srpush=true">Creating Shared Value: Making the Case in Your Company.</a></span></span> As I mentioned yesterday, we have worked closely with FSG over the past year and a half to develop our CSR strategy. During this time, FSG was developing the concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV). Whether you see this as the next point along the continuum of CSR or a distinct, new idea is probably a conversation for another day, but regardless, I love the way Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, and the FSG team in general, have framed this concept, and I think it is absolutely the right way to think about CSR (or whatever you want to call it). If you aren’t familiar with the concept of CSV, stop reading this post right now and read <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.fsg.org/tabid/191/ArticleId/241/Default.aspx?srpush=true">this</a></span></span> instead.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">The purpose of the webinar was to go beyond the “what” of CSV, to focus on the “how”. Specifically, how to you make the case for CSV to your company, well outside the walls of the CSR department? How do you build buy-in and embed this approach throughout your business units? For years, as corporate philanthropy became strategic corporate philanthropy and then CSR, the group that works on social issues has had to become decreasingly siloed in order to succeed. A well-run CSR department collaborates closely with other business units, addresses issues of importance to the rest of the company, and may have a matrixed org chart. With CSV, though, active participation from other business units isn’t just about doing the job well – it’s about doing it at all. CSV doesn’t happen within a department, it’s embedded in a company. That means that, in order to be successful, the CSR team simply must succeed in making the case for CSV to the rest of the company. FSG put together this webinar to share insights from companies that have been making that effort; I thought it might be useful to share and flesh out the key points from my presentation here. </div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">Overall, there are two big things I think we’ve done since the beginning, which have been critical to what successes we’ve had in making the case. One, we’ve <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">focused on engaging senior leaders</span>. We engaged a wide range of senior executives (34 internal interviews) during the strategy development phase, and our CEO was the primary customer for our proposed strategy. We sought to understand their strategies and needs, so that we could identify the key issues within their areas of responsibility that could benefit from a CSV approach. We’ve worked with business unit heads to flesh out and implement the CSR pillars most aligned with their particular groups, with the goal of co-creating our activities. Two, <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">we treat our company’s executives as our clients</span>. We seek to build relationships, we lead with the fit between our work and theirs, and we strive to act as a service organization to other business units.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">What does that mean in practice? Here’s my top-ten list for making the case for CSV:</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">1.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Appoint a <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">high-ranking executive </span>to lead your CSR group: We have found it critical to develop close relationships with our business unit heads, so that we can be a trusted partner. Having a CSR leader who is a peer to those executives has been so important in building those relationships.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">2.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">Invest time </span>in making the case; it’s an iterative process: We’ve had three CEOs (one left, we had an interim, now we have a permanent one) since we started this process, so for turnover reasons alone, you can’t assume your job is ever done in bringing leadership on board. Furthermore, we’ve found that business unit heads are more or less engaged depending on what else is going on in their business, so you have to continually track their needs and objectives, understand how you can support that, and tell them. I think that selling the value of the CSV strategy, rather than just the value a CSV initiative, might be a good way to address this – if you buy into the principle, that won’t change as individual projects become more or less relevant. However, it’s harder to get time on someone’s calendar to talk about a business strategy than it is to discuss a concrete initiative, so I haven’t yet figured out how to strike the right balance on this one.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">3.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Work to <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">understand deeply what your business units do </span>and need: If you are going to help your colleagues to address social issues that could maximize or limit their business success, you have to really and truly understand what your colleagues do and what their problems are. That sounds obvious, but it’s harder than it sounds. We need a real general management skill set and we also need to be a continual student of our organization and our industry. (If you have tactics for succeeding in this ongoing education, I would love to hear them.)</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">4.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Focus on <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">what is important to your business units</span>, not you: If you work in a CSR group, you presumably care about your company’s social impact. That’s integral to CSV, which seeks to address issues that are important to both society and the business. However, that’s not what most business unit leaders are charged with doing. They’re charged with addressing just the business unit side of that Venn diagram. The social impact is nice, but not necessary. That shouldn’t be a problem for you, though – if you’re really engaging in CSV, you are addressing an issue that is of core importance to your business. The social impact is why your group is involved, but it probably isn’t why the company is involved. As such, sell your business unit colleagues on the part that will help them to achieve their goals. If you are picking the right issues, not selling your colleagues on the social impact won’t make the social impact any less powerful. (I should note that this is a little different at my company – because we are an education company, we have the benefit of working with people who ARE charged with driving social impact, in our case educational achievement. The fact that we have to focus on the piece of the puzzle that is most important to our business units remains, though.)</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">5.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Make your colleagues’ lives easier; consider <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">focusing on under-resourced units</span>: We’ve found that business units that don’t have sufficient support in areas where we can add value, like R&D, marketing, relationship-development, and business development, are really eager to work with us, and they move straight to integrating us into their work.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">6.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Be comfortable <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">acting</span> <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">both strategically and tactically </span>– both have their place: We’ve generally found it easier to position ourselves as a partner through tactical initiatives, rather than strategic initiatives. We can often make an introduction, or draw media attention to a business activity, and those are great, but they aren’t creating shared value. That said, I think this is an appropriate interim stem for a company that is new to CSV. These small, lower-impact activities are helping to position our group within the company, helping other units understand who we are and how we can engage with them, and helping us to build the relationships we need to create shared value successfully.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">7.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">Tell</span> <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">the</span> <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">CSV story </span>coherently, frequently, and throughout the company: I think we’ve had the perspective that we’ll start telling our story when our strategy is fully in place, but celebrating success is key to building buy-in, to helping people understand what you are about, so I think it’s important to celebrate the small landmarks along the way.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">8.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Focus on the good, not the perfect, to go after <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">quick wins</span>: For the same reason, go after quick wins; find examples that you can celebrate in order to educate the company about CSV.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">9.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Be clear that you are a <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">change agent</span>, not program manager, from the start: This is a distinction that FSG draws in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">its report, sponsored by HP, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_821449039">"</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_821449039">Creating </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_821449039">Shared Value: </a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.fsg.org/tabid/191/ArticleId/351/Default.aspx?srpush=true">A How-to Guide for the New Corporate (R)evolution"</a></span>, and it is one of the elements of CSV that I struggle with most. With CSV, you aren’t carrying out CSR activities but are instead changing the way your company does business. You aren’t developing projects that the CSR department will run on an ongoing basis – you’ll have done your job when they just become part of how the company does business. But that also means that, when you identify an opportunity, you can’t just do it – you have to convince whole group of other people, with other objectives and ways of operating, to get onboard, and I think that’s really, really hard. </div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 12pt; text-indent: -18pt;">10.<span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"> Develop a strong <span class="Normal__Char" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-weight: bold;">network</span> within your company: There’s obviously a common theme running throughout this post – to implement CSV, you must work through your colleagues throughout the company. But unless you are very lucky, those colleagues probably aren’t seeking you out. As such, you need to figure out which of your colleagues you can help the most, and you need relationships in place to be able to work with them. You also need to understand the twists and turns that you company is facing and adapting to on an ongoing basis. That means you need a strong network within your company, so you can figure out what is going on, who is doing what, and where you might fit in.</span></div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">These tips are based on our challenges to date as much as on our successes – this isn’t easy work. But I think Porter and Kramer are right about CSV – it does drive business success, it does drive social outcomes, and it is the right approach. It just makes so much sense that I’m confident we’ll see more and more companies Creating Shared Value.</div>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-32188124941008977542011-11-02T02:52:00.000-04:002011-11-02T02:52:42.829-04:00Welcome Back!<div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">Welcome back to Reimagining CSR! This isn’t the first time I’ve said that, but things have changed a bit around here, and I’m finding myself very much in need of this space to work out my ideas about CSR. I hope those changes will also make this blog more useful to you.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">A little over a year ago, I joined the brand-new CSR department at a large education company. There were just two of us to start, and then for awhile I was the only employee in the group, but we also worked very closely with a consulting team from FSG. For the first half of 2010, when I was working with my now-employer as an independent consultant while finishing up a fellowship, we focused on the big blocks of strategy: identifying the key social issues that impact our business, figuring out which departments we would be collaborating with, laying out the core pillars of our CSR strategy. I joined the company full-time in summer 2010, and we started working to bring that 30,000 foot picture down to about 10,000 feet – we weren’t implementing, for the most part, but we were exploring partnerships, developing pilot projects, and otherwise figuring out how we were going to bring that big picture strategy to life. In early 2011, we hired an SVP to run the group (hooray for having a senior leader for the CSR team!), and we really started building our team’s infrastructure. We figured out what kind of team we needed to implement our strategy, we fleshed out the budget, and we started to develop the processes we needed to work effectively as a department. Then finally, starting around late spring, we staffed up and really started implementing. We are absolutely, 100% still a work in progress, but what started out as a giant PowerPoint deck a little over a year ago is slowly but surely coming to life.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">What does this have to do with Reimagining CSR? When I started this blog, I was in the last semester of my MBA, and I used it to refine my ideas about what CSR could and should be. I’d previously been a corporate philanthropy consultant at Changing Our World, an intern with the MAC AIDS Fund (the foundation at MAC Cosmetics, part of Estee Lauder), and the corporate philanthropy editor at onPhilanthropy.com. While I was still blogging regularly, I started doing research on CSR for Jane Nelson at the Harvard Kennedy School’s CSR Initiative. I’d also been a student of the subject matter, taking one business school class specifically on CSR and several others that touched on the issue. I’d approached CSR (mostly strategic corporate philanthropy, but other aspects as well) from a range of angles, except one big one: that of a day-in, day-out full-time CSR manager in a company’s CSR department. I learned a massive amount in those other roles – particularly consulting, where I had the chance to work with the CSR groups at a number of companies and to research and profile hundreds more – and they prompted me to mull over questions and offer opinions about the big picture of CSR, of CSR an ideal.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">This job is different. Now, for better or for worse, I don’t spend three months perfecting an ideal strategy, distill it into a beautifully formatted report, and then hand it over. Instead, that nice, big PowerPoint is where my job begins. That leads me to think about a really different set of issues – issues of implementation, issues of structure. I’ll probably still mull the ideal – that’s just my nature – but I’ll spend more time wondering about the balance between ideal and reality, about the tactical how-tos of getting even a little bit close to perfect. Some of my questions are probably common in any business unit – how do I get the business units that I work with to care about my objectives? How do I get senior management involved in the issues that matter to my team? Others are pretty similar to the issues I addressed when I first started this blog – for instance, now that I’m not regularly researching and profiling best practices in CSR, I find myself feeling out of touch, so I’ll use this blog to profile interesting practices and people.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">As always, this blog is part personal learning journal, but I also hope it will be helpful to other people. If there are issues you want to analyze, practices you want to learn more about, people you want to see highlighted, please don’t hesitate to email me at <a href="https://owa.hmhpub.com/OWA/redir.aspx?C=77de5708d1724ab8bd9cd8c1e9b0d430&URL=mailto%3areimaginingcsr%40gmail.com" target="_blank"><span class="Hyperlink__Char" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">reimaginingcsr@gmail.com</span></a>. </div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">Less blog-related, but the other change around here is that I got married and changed my name – I’m now Jessica Hubbard, instead of Jessica Stannard-Friel. Simpler, right? At least, once I figure out all of the million places I need to change it – they seem to be multiplying daily…</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">By the way, I’m writing this from a plane as I fly out to the BSR conference. I plan to tweet extensively – you can follow at @JessSF. If you’re there, too, let me know.</div><div class="Normal" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;">Thanks so much for joining me as I jump back into blogging!</div>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-80757029049122030412011-04-11T00:08:00.000-04:002011-04-11T00:08:31.577-04:00Join Me in Exploring the BCCCC Conference!Welcome back to ReimaginingCSR! It's been far too long since I last posted. Since then, I've moved into an in-house CSR role, as a Senior Manager in the brand-new CSR department at an education company. I joined the company as a consultant when it started working on its CSR strategy last February and then came on full-time when it created a CSR department over the summer. It's been a very exciting process, and it has also exposed me to all sorts of new challenges and ideas that I hope to explore by getting back to blogging.<br />
<br />
My impetus for restarting this blog today is that I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Minneapolis, where I am attending the <a href="http://www.bcccc.net/index.cfm?pageId=2200">Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship conference</a>. I just got back from the opening reception and dinner, where I very much enjoyed talking about CSR theory and practice with people who really get it! Tomorrow, I am excited to attend a range of great sessions - you can see the agenda <a href="http://www.bcccc.net/index.cfm?pageId=2217">here</a> (breakout sessions in detail <a href="http://www.bcccc.net/index.cfm?pageId=2241">here</a>). At the moment, I'm leaning toward attending the following panels:<br />
<ul><li>Make the Connection: Play the Role of Corporate Citizenship Change Agent (with panelists from ARAMARK, Himle Horner Inc., Wells Fargo, and Net Impact) - My colleagues and I are really interested in the role our team can play in helping the company through the major changes happening in our industry, so I hope this session will help me think through that opportunity.</li>
<li>From Volunteering to Involve-a-teering (with panelists from the Center for Corporate Citizenship, Morgan Stanley, General Mills, and PwC) - I am leading the build-out of our volunteerism program, which will focus on skills-based volunteerism. I am very interested in how we can think not just about employees volunteering their time, but also about the company volunteering its employees' expertise. I am also interested in how we can use volunteerism to foster employee learning and professional development. I hope this session will help me explore these issues.</li>
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Throughout the conference, I plan to tweet (<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/JessSF">@JessSF</a>) and blog. I want this communication to be as helpful as possible to those of you who aren't able to be here in person. I'd therefore love to hear your thoughts on the sessions above. What questions do you have on those topics? What issues within them do you want to explore?<br />
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Thank you so much for joining me as I jump back into blogging and for working through these critical issues in our field together. I am thrilled to be re-starting our conversation!Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-23982072812994154822010-05-11T23:33:00.000-04:002010-05-11T23:33:37.914-04:006 Questions with CECP Director Margaret Coady<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">After a long lull, I’m very excited to be getting back to posting on Reimagining CSR.<span> </span>I’m especially excited to introduce a new feature, entitled “6 Questions with…”<span> </span>On a periodic basis, I’ll be sitting down with (ok, probably emailing with) intriguing people in the world of CSR.<span> </span>We’ll have the opportunity to learn about their career paths and their day-to-day experiences as CSR professionals, their insights into trends and challenges in the field, and the interesting activities with which they’re currently involved.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">I hope to capture the diversity of this field by interviewing people in a range of positions – working in-house at companies, at consulting firms, at industry associations, and at nonprofits; in corporate philanthropy, in socially-responsible business, in cause marketing, and in environmental roles; who spend their days thinking about the supply chain, about financials, about key stakeholders, or about compliance; and the many other niches that make up the world of CSR.<span> </span>If there’s anyone in particular that you would like to see featured, please email me at reimaginingcsr (at) gmail (dot) com.<span> </span>I know that this blog tends to be a bit skewed towards corporate philanthropy, as that’s where the bulk of my experience and network lie, so I would particularly appreciate requests for or recommendations of professionals in other areas of CSR.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">We’ll be starting this feature by talking with <a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/about-cecp/staff/margaret-coady.html">Margaret Coady</a>, the Director of the <a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/index.php">Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy</a>, which bills itself as “A network of global CEOs committed to corporate philanthropy.”<span> </span>I first met Margaret when I was a corporate philanthropy consultant at <a href="http://www.changingourworld.com/site/PageServer">Changing Our World</a>, and she was a wealth of information about whatever facet of the sector we happened to be researching on a given day.<span> </span>Margaret and I kept in touch when we both started business school (she while continuing to work full time!), bonding over our shared experience learning all about <a href="http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam;jsessionid=9EC38CF8E423A4126491163E9448AD8B?R=675014-PDF-ENG&conversationId=217590&E=40262">cranberries</a>.<span> </span>(Did you know they bounce?)<span> </span>Margaret sits in a fascinating place in this world, with visibility into the work of many of the country’s top corporate philanthropists – and increasingly, as the organization expands globally, the world’s.<span> </span>She was kind enough to share that view with us here at Reimagining CSR.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica: How did your career and life experiences lead you to the field of corporate social responsibility and to your current position?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: I began my career as an information technology consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, immediately followed by two years as a technology product manager at an Internet start-up in San Francisco (the first year epitomized the spirit of dot-com invincibility; in the second year, everything came somewhat unhinged).<span> </span>Missing the cultural life of NYC, I moved east and became the Assistant Director of a prominent mid-town art gallery.<span> </span>That was a great experience (my friends have heard plenty of behind-the-scenes stories), but I wanted to get back to a career with more of a corporate twist.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Although CECP is a nonprofit, our membership consists of over 150 leading corporate CEOs and we also work closely with the senior giving professionals at those companies.<span> </span>My first role at CECP was as the Research Specialist, charged with growing our proprietary Corporate Giving Standard benchmarking system, which now contains over $60 billion in detailed giving data.<span> </span>This challenge put my IT, sales, marketing, and product strategy skills to great use (as well as my undergraduate liberal arts degree).<span> </span>I was promoted to CECP’s Director, under Charlie Moore, within a few years.<span> </span>In 2009, I graduated as valedictorian of the Executive MBA program at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Columbia</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Business</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>; the learning from those courses has been worth its weight in gold in my new strategic role.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica: What do you do all day?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: In addition to day-to-day management, the short answer is that I draft the strategic course for CECP’s research publications, events, and programs.<span> </span>After all, CECP is only relevant if our work fills the immediate unmet needs of our member companies.<span> </span>Yet it is important for CECP to keep an eye on the horizon, too, since it is a luxury for companies to look too far into the future given increasing pressures on their time.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Recent projects of mine include: crafting a definition and dollar valuation for pro bono service (with our partners at the Taproot Foundation); working alongside the U.N. Global Compact to draft Principles of Responsible Social Investment (to be announced this summer by the Secretary General); shaping the content agenda for CECP’s newsletter, The Corporate Philanthropist, and our CEO conference series; writing the latest edition of CECP’s benchmarking report, Giving in Numbers, and managing the selection process for CECP’s Excellence Awards in Corporate Philanthropy.<span> </span>However, CECP is fundamentally a roll-up-your-sleeves organization, so I spent an hour today stuffing invitations for a special dinner we are hosting at the House of Lords in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> before our first CEO conference abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica: What is one of the most exciting trends that you observe in the world of CSR?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: The most important and inspiring trend that I see across our corporate membership is the commitment to proactively engage in problem-solving on tough issues. The walls that separate funders, grantees, governments, multilaterals, activists and others are falling away as each change agent instead focuses on bringing its skills and resources to bear on today’s most difficult social challenges.<span> </span>Specifically, I see the work that Nestle, and Mark Kramer and Michael Porter, have done on the concept of “shared value” starting to take root more deeply among companies.<span> </span>This philosophy advocates for not simply aligning giving strategy with business strategy—but synthesizing the two.<span> </span>Essentially the idea is that companies must focus on social issues that directly touch the value chain of the business.<span> </span>By concentrating their efforts on social issues that create opportunities (or obstacles) to corporate growth, businesses simultaneously help society and their bottom line.<span> </span>In other words, corporate philanthropy is no longer a complementary function—it is essential to the company’s growth and wholly intertwined with the broader objectives of the business.<span> </span>We’re very excited to discuss this concept in more depth at our upcoming Corporate Philanthropy Summit in June, and have tried to take some of these ideas further for our corporate CEO audience in our latest research.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica:<span> </span>What big challenge is currently facing CSR professionals and/or companies?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: Corporate organizational charts do not always position philanthropy and CSR professionals to actualize the full potential of their roles.<span> </span>These functions can deliver immense value, but not when they are in a silo, understaffed, or improperly staffed.<span> </span>The strategic nature of these roles has only recently begun to be broadly understood, and many companies have yet to fill them with the right talent to get the job done—or to empower that talent to get results.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica: What's one interesting thing that your organization is up to?<span> </span>(Go ahead, brag a little.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: One of CECP’s judging criteria for our Excellence Awards is a commitment to measurement (the others are innovation, CEO leadership, and partnership).<span> </span>We believe measurement is essential to effective giving (the adage ‘what gets measured, gets managed’ applies here), which is why we invest so heavily in research and systems that allow companies to track and benchmark their giving.<span> </span>This year, with the help of the U.N. Global Compact and partner organizations around the world, we are working to expand our measurement framework to be applicable internationally—essentially, we are striving to build a global measurement framework for corporate philanthropy.<span> </span>Our vision is to create a common understanding of what is considered corporate philanthropy, and how contributions should be valued.<span> </span>With this in hand, we can paint a rich portrait of global corporate giving and track its evolution over time.<span> </span>I encourage anyone with insight in this area to email my colleague <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="mailto:arose@corporatephilanthropy.org">Alison Rose</a></span></u>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jessica: CECP recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.<span> </span>How has corporate philanthropy changed in past the ten years, and how do you hope it changes in the next ten years?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Margaret: At CECP, we decided to celebrate our 10-year anniversary not by looking backward, but instead by challenging ourselves and our membership to consider what the world—and the environment for corporate philanthropy—could look like in the year 2020 if we proactively adopt a solutions-oriented mindset on local and global social issues.<span> </span>We needed help to do this, so in addition to interviewing numerous thought leaders ourselves, we enlisted McKinsey & Company to work with us to outline the game-changing trends (demographic, environmental, technological, and geopolitical) that will shape the business landscape in 2020.<span> </span>This work outlines what companies need to do to prepare for the certain (and somewhat less certain) forces headed our way.<span> </span>I won’t preview our conclusions here, but instead invite anyone who is interested to download a free copy of the report from our website when it is available in late May 2010: <a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/">http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org</a>. </span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-60943479577753817742010-01-13T22:20:00.001-05:002010-01-13T22:20:40.253-05:00Corporate Response to the Haitian Earthquake: Update, 1/13/10<span xmlns=''><p>The US Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center is tracking the corporate philanthropy response to the earthquake in Haiti <a href='http://www.uschamber.com/bclc/haiti_corporatedonations.htm'>here</a>. Other great sources of such information include <a href='http://www.csrwire.com/'>CSRWire</a> and <a href='http://www.prnewswire.com/'>PRNewswire</a>. Know something about corporate involvement in relief efforts that isn't included on those sites? Please share it in the comments below.</p></span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-18190830896355116722010-01-12T23:06:00.000-05:002010-01-12T23:06:42.965-05:00Earthquake in Haiti - How Companies Can HelpAs I’m sure you’ve heard, a big earthquake hit Haiti today. While details are relatively limited at this point, it seems clear that the earthquake has taken a major toll. In the wake of such disasters, companies often step up with offers of support, but in the confusing hours and days after such an event, it can be hard to know how to help.<br />
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Just after the 2004 tsunami, I wrote <a href="http://www.onphilanthropy.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5557">this article </a>for <a href="http://www.onphilanthropy.com/site/PageServer">onPhilanthropy</a> about how companies can best contribute to disaster relief efforts. While it’s several years old, I think the advice is still relevant, so I’m posting it for those of you who may spend Wednesday working on your own company’s response. <br />
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Here are a few other resources that might be useful:<br />
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center has <a href="http://www.uschamber.com/bclc/programs/disaster/default">a website</a> focused on supporting companies around issues of disaster relief. The page has a ton of great information, including a phone number specifically for companies that “Need help responding to … a disaster”. Tomorrow, as information (hopefully) starts coming out quickly, the best way to stay up to date might be Twitter – follow the Center @chamberbclc or its Executive Director, Stephen Jordan, @scjordan.<br />
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The Council on Foundations published a guide called “Disaster Grantmaking: A Practical Guide for Foundations and Corporations”, which you can find <a href="http://www.cof.org/files/documents/international_programs/disasterguide.pdf">here</a>. (Note that this link is to a PDF.)<br />
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The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy also has <a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/resources/disaster-response.html">a website </a>dedicated to resources for companies engaged in disaster response efforts.<br />
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I find information sharing to be critically important in times like these, so if anyone comes across specific information about how companies can be helpful in responding to this particular earthquake, I’d really appreciate it if you’d share it in the comments below. Similarly, please share any resources you find that may be helpful for companies considering whether and how to help. Finally, if your company makes a donation, or if you hear about a company that does, please share that, as well, so that we can begin to track the corporate response to this earthquake.<br />
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Thank you, and good luck to everyone involved in this effort.Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-21936827315529175582010-01-11T23:16:00.002-05:002010-01-11T23:17:34.948-05:00Goldman Sachs Update - Employee Giving<span xmlns=""></span><br />
Happy New Year! Yesterday's New York Times had a bit of an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/economy/11goldman.html">update on the Goldman corporate philanthropy story</a> we've been following here on Reimagining CSR (see past articles <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-york-times-on-goldman-sachs.html">here</a>, <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/goldmans-500-million-controversy.html">here</a> and <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/update-goldman-500-million-controversy.html">here</a>). WSJ.com has a round-up of related stories <a href="http://onespot.wsj.com/politics/2010/01/11/a/561542105-goldman-sachs-considers-charity-requirement/">here</a>.<br />
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According to the paper, "As it prepares to pay out big bonuses to employees, Goldman Sachs is considering expanding a program that would require executives and top managers to give a certain percentage of their earnings to charity." The article goes on to say, "While the details of the latest charity initiative are still under discussion, the firm's executives have been looking at expanding their current charitable requirements for months and trying to understand whether such gestures would damp public anger over pay…"<br />
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The most recent article doesn't provide much new information, other than what the paper reported on the same subject this past fall, beyond demonstrating that the concept is apparently still alive. However, it does compare the concept to an employee-giving program at Bear Stearns: "The charity idea would be similar to a decades-long program at the failed investment bank Bear Stearns, which required more than 1,000 of its top workers to give 4 percent of their pay to charity each year and then checked their tax returns to ensure compliance." It then goes on to estimate the impact of such a program, "Assuming a similar percentage and level of participation."<br />
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Granted, that's a big assumption - the article doesn't give any definite information about the number of workers or percent of pay that would be involved in a Goldman program - but the Bear Stearns program is still useful as a benchmark. If the company were indeed to implement an employee giving program along the lines of what's being discussed, and if the numbers looked something like Bear Stearns', my question is this - would this program actually have any impact on the overall giving by affected employees? That is, do the company's top earners (elsewhere in the NYTimes article, we learn, "For their work in 2008, 953 Goldman employees were paid more than $1 million each") currently donate less than 4% of their income? <br />
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Of course, the answer to this question doesn't necessarily change whether the program would achieve Goldman's aims. Theoretically, if this initiative could indeed influence public perception about the bonuses, it matters less whether employees' donations are increasing and more whether the company has a strong story to tell about how generous its employees are with their large paychecks. In that case, the company could get as much value simply by gathering information about its employees' existing donations and their impact and sharing that information. I'm not sure it's relevant for the company to set a mandatory giving hurdle when the hurdle is relatively easy to reach.<br />
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On the other hand, perhaps the Goldman Sachs program, if it indeed becomes reality, will be nothing like the Bear Stearns program. Perhaps it will require that employees (or at least the highest-earning employees) donate a significantly higher figure, a percentage that would seem far above what the average person would expect even from a million-dollar earner - for the sake of argument, let's say something like 25%. Would that change perceptions of the program? Would that make the general public - if that's in fact the stakeholder Goldman would be trying to influence - change its attitudes toward the company, such that this solution (employee giving program) actually impacts the problem (public anger at big bonuses) it seems designed to solve? I'm not sure - but it would definitely break through the clutter of expected actions.<br />
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Of course, maybe the lackluster reactions to the idea - as evidenced, for instance, by the comments to the NYTimes story (admittedly not a representative sample, but the comments are really negative) - will convince Goldman Sachs decision-makers that this proposed solution won't, in fact, address the problem in question. Regardless, I look forward to the next installment of this story, which continues to help us think more deeply about causal relationships in the world of corporate philanthropy.Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-1946651036545974982009-11-23T00:10:00.004-05:002009-11-23T00:14:51.583-05:00Update - Goldman's $500 Million Controversy<span xmlns=""></span><br />
There were quite a few articles over the weekend that addressed <a href="http://www2.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/index.html">Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses program</a> and <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/goldmans-500-million-controversy.html">the backlash that it has induced</a>. Below, I've summarized a few that I found particularly interesting.<br />
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Before we turn to the articles, though, I want to point out one thing. I noticed an important line in <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd068a70-d3e2-11de-8caf-00144feabdc0.html">a Financial Times article</a>, which said, "Goldman stressed that the small business drive had been planned for a year." I'm not sure if or how that changes the discussion of whether this is a good strategic CSR initiative, but it's a useful piece of information to add into the conversation.<br />
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<strong>$500 Million is just "Crumbs from its (Goldman's) table."</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22sun1.html?_r=1&hp">The New York Times published an editorial entitled "Goldman's Non-Apology".</a> The editorial criticizes what it argues are Goldman's contributions to causing the current recession, as well as what it sees as Goldman's unwillingness to acknowledge that it needed the government's bail-out money and that it thus isn't true that "taxpayer dollars have not helped to generate its post-crash profits." The piece goes on to address the 10,000 Small Businesses program, calling the $500 million pledge "crumbs from its table". It says, "It is hard to take seriously Goldman's claim that the program was not motivated by its public relations problems. The money will be welcomed by the recipients, but if Goldman wants to make a meaningful contribution, it would have to be in the billions and aimed more directly at taxpayers." Instead, the editorial suggests, Goldman should make "A multibillion-dollar gift to the federal Bureau of the Public Debt, which accepts tax-deductible donations to reduce the national debt."<br />
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<strong>Goldman's recent "exercise is so sequenced and packaged that it's bound to come across as disingenuous", but ultimately, the company "exists solely to make profits for its employees and shareholders."</strong><br />
The Wall Street Journal blog Mean Street, written by Evan Newmark, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/11/18/mean-street-dont-apologize-for-anything-goldman-sachs/">takes a very different stance, in a post entitled "Mean Street: Don't Apologize for Anything, Goldman Sachs"</a>. According to Newmark, the reason the general public is angry at Goldman is simple: "In an economy full of losers, everyone is fixated on hating the winner." He goes on to argue that the 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, along with Lloyd Blankfien's apology (quoted in the NYTimes editorial, if you want to see the exact language), "...is so sequenced and packaged that it's bound to come across as disingenuous, even deeply cynical." However, ultimately, Newman thinks that the public is coming down too hard on Goldman: "And here's the really unfortunate aspect of your current predicament: it's undeserved. Sure, there was some clumsy PR out of Goldman over the past year. But I still can't figure out why and to whom you're apologizing." Furthermore, he says, "...you're apologizing because nobody can handle the real truth: Goldman Sachs exists solely to make profits for its employees and shareholders. The rest is just PR."<br />
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<strong>"The bankers may have to give up more yet - and not only by writing a check."</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/weekinreview/22bowley.html?pagewanted=1&sq=goldman&st=cse&scp=7">A separate article New York Times article - "Wall Street's Spin Game," by Graham Bowley</a> - gives Goldman Sachs advice on how to confront its current public relations challenges (which go beyond the Small Businesses initiative). Among the tactics he recommends is, "Give Back Some Money." However, he warns, "...there is the risk that such a strategy will be seen as a transparent ploy to buy off public opinion. Goldman's donation was only about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion the bank has so far set aside this year for its bonus pool. The bankers may have to give up more yet — and not only by writing a check." Instead, he advises (quoting Howard J. Rubenstein, president of communications firm Rubenstein Associates), the company should make it "mandatory" for its "brilliant staff" to volunteer in ways that have "real impact". (It's not particularly relevant here, but I really liked the advice to "Show you create real products that benefit people." Actually, that is relevant - ultimately, isn't CSR broadly about creating real value for the general public, that is, creating products (or services, or donations, or business processes) that benefit people?)<br />
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<strong>"As hedging strategies go, this remains far from sure to work."</strong><br />
The Financial Times suggests looking past the immediate controversy and into the future, with <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b4c50178-d574-11de-81ee-00144feabdc0.html">an article by Gillian Tett entitled, "Can today's philanthropy fend off future bank-bashing?"</a> The article asks, "What exactly was going through the brain of Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, this week when the bank announced a $500m initiative to help small American businesses?" Tett argues that, while making "an effort to quell the current bank-bashing" might be part of the company's reasoning, "Goldman, is (in)famous for trying to be ahead of the curve. And the really interesting political economy issue that haunts finance now, is not the attacks that Goldman (and other banks) have suffered in 2009 - but the question of what could await them in 2010, 2011, 2012 or beyond." The article suggests that, if the economic situation gets worse instead of better, we could see far greater public outrage. In this context, "Can Goldman's $500m programme protect the bank against that political risk? On paper, the target of its largesse certainly looks politically savvy: small business funding is a huge political headache in the US right now, due to its link with unemployment." However, Tett goes on to say, "...the grim fact remains that $500m is still just 3 per cent of the bank's bonus pool - and even a non-banker can see that is a small sum. As hedging strategies go, this remains far from sure to work."<br />
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<strong>"Goldman's wholesale focus…does not suit retail diplomacy."</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/2893c720-d452-11de-990c-00144feabdc0.html">A second Financial Times article,</a> while focusing on the various problems threatening Goldman's reputation (its "most precious asset"), raises a very interesting question about its philanthropic efforts: "One difficulty is that Goldman's wholesale focus means little business contact with an angry public – it does not suit retail diplomacy. Even well-designed charitable initiatives, then, risk being misinterpreted." The article doesn't elaborate much on this idea, so I'm not completely sure where the authors are going with it, but I think this is a really interesting comment. It's true that the vast majority of people don't really know what Goldman Sachs does, not in the way that we know what, say, Wal-Mart, or Disney, or Bank of America do. (This relates to the advice in the NYTimes article referenced above, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/weekinreview/22bowley.html">"Wall Street's Spin Game"</a>.) We interact with the latter companies' products and services every day, but hardly any of us interact with Goldman. As such, is it possible for the general public to have a relationship with the company, and is such a relationship critical to our ability to trust them? This is important because, <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/goldmans-500-million-controversy.html">as I discussed in my last post about Goldman Sachs</a>, while CSR initiatives may build trust, they need to be built on a baseline of pre-existing trust, or people might not trust the activities or might see them as disingenuous. So, what does this mean for business-to-business companies? Are there other ways they can create that baseline of trust, or, as this FT article suggests, are they simply not suited for "retail diplomacy"?<br />
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I'm interested in looking at other instances in which a corporate philanthropy commitment has been met at least in part with negative feedback - I think isolating what doesn't work would help us to better understand what does. If you know of any good examples, I'd really appreciate hearing them.<br />
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Thanks!Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-24749690606918042942009-11-19T23:35:00.004-05:002009-11-23T00:26:37.798-05:00Goldman’s $500 Million Controversy<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<em>Goldman just made a big charitable commitment - and stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Did the company design or execute the program poorly? Are its critics being unreasonable? In this post, I examine the program and some of the reactions to it, consider what could be going wrong, and summarize the analysis of several experts in a recent discussion of the issue in the New York Times. What's your take?</em><br />
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<a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-york-times-on-goldman-sachs.html">Last week, I wrote about the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the company's employee giving activities.</a> In that post, I postulated that the company was using philanthropy in part to mitigate widespread discomfort (too weak a word?) with its large employee bonuses. I also complained about comments like the following statement from a 2007 New York Times article about one of the firms' giving vehicles: "Cynics who have watched the wealth creation at Goldman might think that the program is little more than a public relations effort to mask the gigantic bonuses it is expected to pay out starting in early December…" Instead, I argued, "I don't think that's cynical at all, though, nor do I think it takes anything away from the firms' - or its partners' - philanthropy. If the company is recognizing a risk, and utilizing philanthropy as one of the tools it uses to minimize that risk, that's good strategic corporate philanthropy."<br />
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Based on general reactions to one news story this week, though, it looks like a lot of people disagree with me! This week, Goldman announced a $500 million commitment to a new "10,000 Small Businesses" program. According to<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/business/18goldman.html?_r=1"> an article that appeared on the New York Times website on November 17</a>, the company will "provide $200 million to pay for small-business owners to get business and management education at local community colleges and other places," offer $300 million of grants and small loans to small businesses, and also provide mentoring (by employee volunteers) and networking opportunities to these same small-small business owners. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704538404574542243543724398.html">Yesterday, an article in the Wall Street Journal</a> gave slightly more detail, stating that $250 million of the total would be distributed as loans, with an equal quantity in grants. Warren Buffet and Michael Porter (HBS professor, major contributor to the field of strategy, founder of a nonprofit that fosters entrepreneurship and economic development in inner cities) are among the effort's advisers. The company's own discussion of the initiative is <a href="http://www2.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/index.html">here</a>.<br />
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Theoretically, this program makes a lot of sense as a strategic philanthropy effort. Currently, one of Goldman's major problems is that, as the New York Times put it, "it has become a punching bag for an industry that is seen by many to have benefited unfairly from billions in taxpayer dollars." People are angry that the government bailed out the financial sector, and now Goldman's employees, according to the same article, has earmarked $16.7 billion "so far" this year for employee pay. Meanwhile, unemployment remains high and the general public hasn't seen the end of this recession.<br />
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As a result, it makes sense that Goldman is investing in an effort that, if successful, is presumably designed to stimulate economic growth, from the bottom up. It is investing in small businesses, providing two resources that it has in abundance - cash and employee talent - to a population that could utilize those two resources to grow, creating social benefit. There is a direct connection between the problem Goldman faces (anger over its unequal share of the wealth) and the solution it is offering (creating a program to generate more wealth for the people who currently have a smaller piece of the pie), and it is <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/04/comparative-advantage-and-corporate.html">utilizing resources that it has unique access</a> to in order to provide that solution.<br />
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Simple, right? Um, apparently not, if the 97 comments (as of the time of this post) reacting to the Wall Street Journal article are any indication. While Goldman certainly has its defenders among WSJ commenters, responses like these were common (the commenter's name follows the quote):<br />
<ul><li>"The 500 million would be pro rata 2.5% of their annual bonus this year, which is cheap buy-out for the public opinions…" (JAMES DREITO)</li>
<li>"The amazing part is these Goldman "masters of the universe" think we are all that stupid that we will fall for this not so subtle act of contrition...it sure must be nice to own both political parties and get away with anything and everything." (John McIlvenna)</li>
<li>"Goldman's actions are sickening. After STEALING tens of billions of dollars from the US taxpayer, Goldman is now insulting America with this cheap trick. Goldman Sachs must be destroyed before it destroys the US." (Peter Marlow)</li>
<li>"What a crock. A despicable move by Goldman to appease the masses. My bet is less than 10% of the "500 million" is ever distributed. Certainly less than $50 miliion (SIC) will ever be actually given away. Who are these creeps kidding? Endless pox on them." (Michael Smith)</li>
<li>"Wow, how generous of the crooks who helped create a financial meltdown, then took $64 Billion in tax payer money to make themselves whole only to pay the people who caused this billions in bonuses. It now makes sense that they should get some good Public Relations from our money and ....another tax break for handing out charity to us poor folk west of the Hudson." (TOM OKEEFE)</li>
<li>"Blood money." (Dirk Dreux)</li>
</ul><br />
So what did Goldman do wrong? I can think of a few possible issues (but I feel like these ideas could use some sharpening or refinement, and I'd love your thoughts on how to do so):<br />
<ul><li>Corporate philanthropy, and CSR more broadly, can definitely help mitigate reputational and other types of risk, but it doesn't cause other acts that people judge negatively to go away. In fact, if the CSR activity seems hypocritical, people tend to react really negatively. Is that what's going on here? The fact that many commenters (and journalists) brought up a recent quote by the Goldman CEO, where he claimed that the firm is "doing God's work", suggests that this is a factor.</li>
<li>CSR can certainly promote trust, but maybe companies need a baseline of trust that is built through their general business activities. Otherwise, you get reactions like the ones revealed in some of the comments quoted above, with people questioning whether the company can be trusted to carry out the program as promised.</li>
<li>While I still believe that PR (and other business) benefits are a legitimate motivation for CSR, really good business benefits most often (though not always) come from a program's outputs and results, not just the inputs. That is, Goldman is likely to get real credit if and when it can show that it's donation has promoted economic growth. A good illustration of this viewpoint comes when the New York Times article quotes Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, regarding his thoughts on the Goldman commitment: "It's a down payment, a step forward and hopefully a precursor of a different discussion — in the long run, how do we build an economy where everyone can share in the success?" he said. "But if this is an isolated public relations activity, it's insufficient." </li>
<li>Or maybe I'm just in the minority, and the majority of people believe that corporate philanthropy should not benefit the business, and the companies should carry out philanthropic activities because "it's the right thing to do".</li>
</ul>Today, the New York Times, in its Room for Debate section, <a href="http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/is-goldmans-charitable-gesture-enough/">tried to hash out some of these questions</a>. It asked, "Does the firm have an obligation to make philanthropic efforts, given that it benefited from the federal support? How can the most be made of this opportunity? Should Goldman be committing more than $500 million, based on its bottom line?" It pulled together a great panel to weigh in on the matter, including: <br />
<ul><li>Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, "Philanthrocapitalism" </li>
<li>Robert Johnson, economist </li>
<li>Nicole Gelinas, Manhattan Institute </li>
<li>Nomi Prins, senior fellow, Demos </li>
<li>Peter Firestein, author </li>
<li>Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org</li>
</ul>Bishop and Green reacted similarly to Andrew Stern. They argue, "If this announcement is the first of many acknowledgments by the leading lights of the finance world that the winners in our economic system have a responsibility to ensure that the benefits are spread throughout society, then Goldman C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein's recent claim that the firm is "doing God's work" may not be so ridiculous." <br />
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Johnson focuses not on the donation, but on what he sees as the structural problems that made it possible: "...Goldman Sachs would not have that $500 million of spiritual bounty to distribute if it weren't for the U.S. taxpayers. Charitable giving is nice, but we can't take our eye off the ball when it comes to the need to repair our structure of government and address the undue influence of Goldman Sachs and the other powerful financial sector firms." In other words, in his view, the philanthropic program does not address the root problem.<br />
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Gelinas is concerned that Goldman's efforts will be too successful as a PR initiative, particularly among politicians. She argues, "That is, Goldman makes tons of money thanks to an implicit taxpayer "too-big-to-fail" subsidy, and it will give a little bit of that money back in ways that please important political constituencies like the National Federation of Independent Business on the right and the National Urban League on the left, each of which will help the firm with its small-business undertaking. Because it sweetens too-big-to-fail politically, the charitable initiative is bad for the economy and society."<br />
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Along somewhat similar lines, Prins suggests that the target audience for this initiative - not in terms of beneficiaries, but in terms of whom Goldman is looking to influence - is not in fact the general public, but the government: "Mr. Blankfein missed the opportunity to be genuinely concerned about the little people about a year and a bailout ago. So he's sacrificing a $500 million pawn and by doing so, he may placate the government — a more necessary a task to him than being universally loved."<br />
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Firestein's argument draws on two of the theories I laid out above, including both the idea that the public will reject perceived hypocrisy and that a baseline of trust is required before companies can use social engagement to augment that attribute. He says, "It's a lot of money (to anyone but Goldman) but it does nothing to convey a change in the bank's attitude toward the society around it." Furthermore, he argues, "That Goldman has allowed its reputation to sink so low as to make half a billion seem like a token causes damage far beyond the bank itself. It may undermine public sentiment toward truly needed financial entities for a long time to come."<br />
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Finally, Best shares his ideas for how Goldman could improve the execution of this project. He also shares his own experience as the recipient of Goldman funding: "I know from personal experience what Goldman Sachs funding can do for a small enterprise." In this way, though not explicitly, he draws on the idea that results are important, holding up Goldman's success in helping him as evidence that perhaps they can do this well, too. <br />
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What do you think? Are Goldman's critics being unreasonable? Is the company's corporate philanthropy strategy a poor solution for the problem the company is trying to address, or has it done a poor job executing this strategy? Do motives matter, and if not, where does hypocrisy come in? Or does this situation reveal that there are simply limits to the strategic benefits of corporate philanthropy?Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-80374663829569616632009-11-16T23:49:00.002-05:002009-11-16T23:53:36.504-05:00CSR and Social Media<span xmlns=""></span><br />
In the past month or so, it seems that conversations about the relationship between CSR and social media are everywhere. This obviously isn't a new topic, but it seems to have hit a new level of prominence. Here are some of the exciting articles and studies that have come out on this topic recently:<br />
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<a href="http://3blmedia.com/">3BL Media</a> CEO <a href="http://3blmedia.com/AboutUs">Greg Schneider</a> explores the role of social media in CSR in a piece entitled <a href="http://threeblmedia.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/the-real-time-of-social-media/">"The 'Real -Time' of Social Media"</a>. He argues that companies must figure out how "...To communicate effectively in ways that a growing, "green-focused" audience, consisting of varied demographics, is responsive to and can trust." Social media tools, he advises, amount to "...new and different ways to reach an audience no longer receptive to traditional methods such as press releases." Furthermore, "...successful organizations have begun to realize that the value of delivering their messages, consistently in all different media formats, engages a passionate audience." I was particularly interested in his argument that companies should deliver their message "where they're (the consumers are) already spending Web time… Forget about the destination Web site. Game over."<br />
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<a href="http://www.thecrossbordergroup.com/pages/1/Home.stm">Cross Border's</a> <a href="http://www.thecrossbordergroup.com/pages/56/Inside+IR+magazine.stm">IR Magazine</a> reports on a study by <a href="http://www.lundquist.it/">Lundquist</a>, a "strategic communication consultancy, specialising in online corporate communications". According to IR Magazine, the study "finds that while disclosure of information is usually of a high standard in CSR reporting, communication and interactivity are lacking". The article goes on to say, "The most damning result of this one-way system is that 'companies are publishing a lot of good news and avoiding the hard (sometimes uncomfortable) facts that stakeholders need if they are to judge how well a company is performing in non-financial matters,' states the report." The is particularly problematic because, "As the report points out, the internet has brought about higher expectations for corporate response." The IR Magazine article is <a href="http://www.thecrossbordergroup.com/pages/1913/Breaking+news.stm?article_id=13682">here</a>, while the Lundquist report is <a href="http://www.lundquist.it/media/files/lundquist_csr_online_awards_global_leaders_2009_executive_summary.pdf">here</a>. Jo Confino of the Guardian reacted to the study <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/blog/2">here</a>.<br />
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In <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/">CSRWire</a>, <a href="http://www.cchange.net/about/bill-baue/">Bill Baue</a> of <a href="http://www.cchange.net/">Sea Change Media</a> wrote an article entitled, <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/csrlive/commentary_detail/1257-Corporate-Social-Responsibility-Social-Media-Promise-of-Transformation">"Corporate Social Responsibility + Social Media = Power of Transformation"</a>. He is working with Marcy Murningham and Bob Massie on a research project for the Harvard Kennedy School's <a href="http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/CSRI/">Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative</a>, about Web 2.0 and corporate accountability. In the post, he talks about his experiences at several recent conferences and the connection between those events and the theme of CSR and Web 2.0. I was particularly intrigued by the following statement: "The week's takeaways: web 2.0 holds great promise to transform the way companies engage with stakeholders, but we are still way early in the innovation curve on using web 2.0 to advance corporate sustainability and accountability!" It sounds as though he's distinguishing between the use of social media as a tool to talk about CSR and the use of social media to actually advance one's CSR activities - I think that's an important distinction, and it's one that can be easy to forget about.<br />
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In <a href="http://mashable.com/">Mashable</a>, one of my favorite sources of news on social media, <a href="http://melissajunrowley.com/">Melissa Jun Rowley</a> wrote an article entitled, <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/11/06/social-responsibility/">"Why Social Media Is Vital to Corporate Social Responsibility"</a>. So many good quotes!<br />
<ul style="margin-left: 54pt;"><li>"The result of things like the current economic climate and recognition of global climate change, society is starting to push past awareness and into action." (Reminds me of the move fromWeb 1.0 to 2.0)</li>
<li>"…The standard for CSR is being redefined and is evolving as a driver of innovation."</li>
<li>"There was a time when companies issued press releases, and operated under the impression that they controlled the message of their brand. Those days are gone. Today, the brand image is linked to the thoughts and conversations of a company's consumers. Therefore, businesses must get to know their constituents."</li>
<li>"Absolute transparency, no holds barred, is key."</li>
<li>"When consumers are treated as citizens, they can do everything from helping a company amplify its voice, to voting on the style of a new product, to improving a service."</li>
</ul><a href="http://www.coneinc.com/">Cone</a> has released the results of its <a href="http://www.coneinc.com/content2601">2009 Consumer New Media Study</a>. You can download the findings <a href="http://www.coneinc.com/research/">here</a>. Among the intriguing conclusions:<br />
<ul style="margin-left: 54pt;"><li>"Almost 80 percent (78%) of new media users interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools, an increase of 32 percent from 2008 (59%)." (What an opportunity this is for companies to build meaningful relationships with their consumers!)</li>
<li>Of course, this new opportunity comes with increased responsibility: "New media users overwhelmingly believe companies or brands should not only have a presence in new media (95%) but also interact with their consumers (89%)." (This is consistent with Lundquist's conclusion that people expect increased responsiveness from companies in this internet age.)</li>
<li>"Forty-four percent of American new media users are searching for, sharing or discussing information about corporate responsibility (CR) efforts and programs..."</li>
<li>"Sixty-two percent of users polled believe they can influence business decisions by voicing opinions via new media channels. " (I love this stat!! I think this connects back to Melissa Jun Rowley's statements about treating consumers as citizens, quoted just above - is there something big here?) </li>
</ul>Of course, if you're interested in this topic, you're probably already familiar with <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/">Justmeans</a>, which, among other things, helps companies "Syndicate (their) good work to multiple social networks with Justmeans" in order to "Attract and ignite advocates for better business". Justmeans recently put on the <a href="http://www.socialmediacsr.com/index.html">Social Media for Sustainability</a> conference. Bill Baue talks about the event in the CSRWire article discussed previously in this post. If anyone else attended and can share some of the highlights, or knows where presentations or videos might be posted, please share!<br />
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I'm very curious to see where this is going. If you see great examples of how companies are using social media as part of their CSR efforts, or if you have thoughts on the key themes that run through these activities, I'd love to hear more.Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-91703562249838913502009-11-12T00:26:00.003-05:002009-11-12T00:35:30.261-05:00The New York Times on the Goldman Sachs Foundation, or WHY Can't We Acknowledge that CSR is Good for a Company??The New York Times just posted to its website <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/12goldman.html?hp">an article about the Goldman Sachs Foundation's most recent tax filing</a>. The Goldman Sachs Foundation is interesting because it holds significant assets, like a private foundation. My understanding (I don't have the statistics to back this up, anyone know for sure?) is that many/most company foundations are pass-through entities ,with the company donating the next year's budget at the beginning of that year. As a result, as the Foundation's tax filing contains information about how its assets were managed, the article reports that it "...provides a glimpse of the legendary trading that has helped put the firm on track for its best year ever."<br /><br />The article goes on to discuss what the reporter seems to see as Goldman's use of corporate philanthropy as a reputation management tool: "Given the firm’s anticipated profits and supersize bonuses, which have touched off public furor, it is no surprise that Goldman said recently it would increase its charitable giving. It has set aside $200 million to nearly double the size of its main foundation."<br /><br />Interestingly, this article about the company's foundation also discusses giving by its executives. "After Mr. Whitehead (that's former co-chairman John C. Whitehead) challenged the firm to do more, it created a donor-advised fund that it hoped would reach $1 billion over a few years. The fund allows the firm’s 400 partners to put aside money for the charities of their choice." I know that companies often report on employee giving as part of their overall philanthropic efforts, but this isn't your typical employee giving campaign. While the company did make its own donation to the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund, it (like any donor-advised fund) primarily facilitates giving by the donors (to "the charities of their choice").<br /><br />At first glance, this is a bit random - what interest does Goldman have in its partners' personal philanthropy? However, one of the big strategic issues that Goldman seems to be facing these days is managing its reputation in the face of that "public furor" over "supersize bonuses". As such, it makes a lot of sense that the firm would want to encourage and promote charitable giving funded by those bonuses. Actually, it's even more interesting given that the Fund predates the crises, or at least the worst of it, which suggests this is a relatively long-term concern for Goldman Sachs.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/business/21donate.html?scp=1&sq=GS%20gives&st=cse">Here's an article about the creation of the Fund </a>- though the article calls it by a different name, GS Gives - from November 2007. One interesting line from that article, in light of my above analysis: "Cynics who have watched the wealth creation at Goldman might think that the program is little more than a public relations effort to mask the gigantic bonuses it is expected to pay out starting in early December (to be paid next year). But few want to discourage charitable efforts. " I don't think that's cynical at all, though, nor do I think it takes anything away from the firms' - or its partners' - philanthropy. If the company is recognizing a risk, and utilizing philanthropy as one of the tools it uses to minimize that risk, that's good strategic corporate philanthropy.<br /><br />It doesn't surprise me that some would see such activity (if that's even Goldman's intent, I could be assigning them motives that aren't there) as self-serving. However, I believe that it's only when we maximize the positive impact that CSR (including corporate philanthropy) can have on companies will we be able to maximize the resources that companies invest in CSR. As such, I WANT to see companies connecting their CSR efforts to public relations or any of the many other business needs that CSR can help serve. However, I often see comments like the one in the 2007 article, suggesting that there is something wrong with a company that seeks to use CSR as a tool to meet its business goals. Similarly (and probably because of those comments), I SO OFTEN hear CSR executives lay out some great, strategic ways in which their CSR activities fit into the larger business, but then say that the company really only gets involved in CSR because it's "the right thing to do". It may or may not be the right thing to do - I'd just as soon avoid Milton Friedman this late at night - but we WILL NOT achieve CSR's full potential if that's the best reason we can give for engaging in corporate social responsibility.<br /><br />But how in the world do we get past this issue?? Please, if you have any thoughts or ideas on this, share them in the comment section below.Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-70817898269289906772009-11-02T23:15:00.002-05:002009-11-02T23:23:41.300-05:00News Update: EnvironmentA couple of articles on CSR have caught my eye recently:<br /><br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/business/01proto.html?_r=3&ref=technology">"Everybody in the Pool of Green Innovation"</a> - Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article looking at communication and collaboration among companies seeking to improve their environmental performance. In particular, the article talks about companies that donate patents for environmentally-responsible products, processes, etc. to the public commons.<br /></li></ul><p> </p><ul><li><a href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/with-new-consumer-care-tags-levi-strauss-aims-to-reduce-its-carbon-footprint/?scp=9&sq=sustainability&st=cse">"With New Care Tags, Levi Strauss Aims to Reduce Its Footprint"</a> - Interesting way to manage product lifecycle concerns - according to the New York Times, "The company will soon sew revamped tags into all of its clothing that instruct people to donate items when they are no longer needed." The tags will also recommend washing practices (cold wash, line dry) that conserve energy .<br /><br /></li></ul><p>It's interesting that, in both cases, the CSR activities don't necessarily require a major investment by the company. The donated patents, for instance, are primarily patents that aren't especially strategic to the donor companies, so the donors don't get much value out of holding them close. By donating the patents to the public commons, the donor companies enable a range of other players to be more sustainable. Similarly, I don't think Levi Strauss is incurring any extra cost (beyond redesigning its labels, I suppose) by asking consumers to be more thoughtful about the environmental impact of their jeans - instead, as in the green innovation article, the company in question is making it more likely that an external party behave more responsibly. (Of course, these low-cost activities may be packaged with higher cost activities, like grants that seek to leverage their impact.)<br /><br />These are great examples of companies indentifying CSR activities that are relatively cheap for them to carry out, but relatively high value for the community at large. </p>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-50793321144895834882009-10-27T00:47:00.002-04:002009-10-27T00:58:21.986-04:00BSR Conference - Session Summaries Available<a href="http://www.bsr.org/">Business for Social Responsibility</a> held its conference in San Francisco last week. Titled "Reset Economy. Reset World.", the conference implored attendees to "Deliver Business Value by Thinking Big and Embracing Long-Term Sustainability Trends".<br /><br />My favorite new trend in conferences is that everyone is tweeting, blogging, and streaming their sessions, so those who can't attend in person can still participate. BSR is a great example of this, having put Session Summaries (featuring an overview of the conversation, including "memorable quotes") up on <a href="http://www.bsr.org/bsrconferences/2009/session-summaries.cfm">this website</a>, along with video clips of key speeches. I highly recommend checking out the summaries and videos - I'm particularly excited to learn more about sessions like "<a href="http://www.bsr.org/ClientFiles/BAS/Conference2009/Materials/BSR_Conf2009_The_Changing_Function_of_the_CSR_Team.pdf">The Changing Function of the CSR Team in a Reset World</a>", "<a href="http://www.bsr.org/ClientFiles/BAS/Conference2009/Materials/BSR_Conf2009_Sustainable_Consumption.pdf">Sustainable Consumption</a>", and "<a href="http://www.bsr.org/ClientFiles/BAS/Conference2009/Materials/BSR_Conf2009_Conversation_with_Pamela_Passman.pdf">A Conversation with Pamela Passman</a>". (Regarding the latter, I'm intrigued by Microsoft's CSR efforts and especially by Passman's comments in the summary about collaborating with competitors on sustainability.) <br /><br />You can also find a few blog posts about the conference on BSR's blog, <a href="http://blog.bsr.org/">The Business of a Better World</a>, as well as fairly extensive coverage by GreenBiz.com, at <a href="http://greenbiz.com/view-all/all/28093">this website</a>.<br /><br />If anyone else attended the conference and wants to share thoughts and impressions in a guest post, I'd love to hear from you! You can email me at reimaginingcsr (at) gmail (dot) com. Of course, also feel free to leave your ideas in a comment.<br /><br />Thanks!Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-36553410156001874762009-10-07T23:19:00.002-04:002009-10-07T23:35:28.789-04:00Welcome Back to Reimagining CSR! Welcome back to Reimagining CSR! I originally started this blog as part of a project for my MBA, and I stopped blogging when I graduated. Now, though, it's undeniably fall in Boston, and while I've been back in the world of full-time work for a couple of months now, the back-to-school feeling in the air is inspiring me to start writing again.<br /><br />Last spring, we talked a lot about the impact of the recession on CSR. We looked at <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-update-csr-and-economy.html">news</a> and <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/news-update-conference-board-survey.html">research</a> on the topic, and we listened to <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/responsibility-recession.html">chatter among practitioners</a>. We considered reasons that the recession could increase socially responsible activities among companies (<a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/trust-in-corporations.html">here</a> and <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-recession-good-for-environment.html">here</a>), considered <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/recession-special-pro-bono.html">possible negative ramifications</a> of some of these activities, and sometimes <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-just-law.html">wondered why we didn’t see still more companies</a> engaging in win-win activities. I know this is a topic that remains of interest to many of you. Even now, searches like "recession CSR" continue to bring new readers to this blog.<br /><br />Because of that shared interest, I'm excited to draw your attention to the Boston College Center on Corporate Citizenship's recently released report, "<a href="http://www.bcccc.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=document.showDocumentByID&DocumentID=1333">State of Corporate Citizenship 2009: Weathering the storm</a>". This document is the fourth installment in the Center's biennial series. Each report is based on a "survey of the attitudes and actions of senior executives in small, medium and large businesses regarding corporate citizenship."<br /><br />Some particularly exciting findings, as summarized in the report by Barbara Dyer, President and CEO of The Hitachi Foundation:<br /><br /><ul><li>"...over half of these business leaders believe that corporate citizenship is even more important in a recession."</li><li>"Increasingly, companies are aiming to integrate corporate citizenship with their business strategy." (This is something that we <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/responsibility-recession.html">discussed</a> in our conversations last spring, and it's also consistent with early <a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/news-update-conference-board-survey.html">research from the Conference Board</a>.)</li><li>"More businesses’ leaders recognize that being a good corporate citizen adds real value to their firm. Particularly when times are desperate, attention is focused like a laser on those matters that contribute value to their bottom line. Most businesses maintained and some others expanded their attention to, and budget for, corporate citizenship. These actions are the strongest evidence that corporate citizenship has met the value-added test for a large and growing segment of U.S. businesses."<br /><br /></li></ul><p>Reports like this one make me hopeful. They make me consider that, in the long run, this recession might be a good thing for the field of CSR. I hope that, as companies are faced with both increased social needs and decreased resources available, they will learn to build programs that are truly win-win. These programs will go beyond just looking good in a press release, to be truly embedded in the companies' business strategies. As I've said before, I think that only when companies see CSR as a critical component of achieving their larger business goals will they invest in CSR not as a nice-to-have, but rather at the levels required to enable CSR to fulfill its potential.</p>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-10195983896548936772009-04-29T22:36:00.002-04:002009-04-29T22:47:22.671-04:00Profile - McKesson and Comparative Advantage<div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;">On Monday, I wrote about corporate philanthropy and comparative advantage. I argued that companies should focus their corporate philanthropy programs on contributing resources to which they uniquely have access, resources that they can provide at a cost that is lower than the beneficiary would pay on the open market. As such, I argued that most companies should donate primarily expertise and perhaps products, giving cash only to leverage such donations. Today, I want to illustrate that theory. <br /><br />Last week, I had the chance to speak with Carrie Varoquiers, President of the </span><a href="http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/About%2BUs/Corporate%2BCitizenship/McKesson%2BFoundation.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">McKesson Foundation</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> and Vice President of </span><a href="http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/About%2BUs/Corporate%2BCitizenship/Corporate%2BCitizenship.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">Corporate Citizenship</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> at the </span><a href="http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;">McKesson Corporation</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Back in February, I wrote </span><a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/responsibility-recession.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">a post on the impact of the recession on CSR</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Carrie </span><a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/responsibility-recession.html#comments"><span style="font-family:arial;">commented</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> on that post, saying, in part:<br /><br />“I have also noticed a dearth of corporate operating foundations, which is actually quite </span><span style="font-family:arial;">surprising. Most corporations have institutional knowledge and in-house resources to create </span><span style="font-family:arial;">and manage social benefit programs, especially if their Foundation’s mission is well aligned </span><span style="font-family:arial;">with their business. It’s very curious. Perhaps we will see more of this model moving forward.<br /><br />I’m not saying traditional grantmaking corporate foundations shouldn’t exist, I am simply saying that it’s not the only option for creating meaningful social change.”<br /><br />This way of thinking is very much in line with how I think about corporate philanthropy and comparative advantage, so as I was writing Monday’s post, I reached out to Carrie to hear more about how she approaches this issue. <br /><br />First, a bit of background: San Francisco-based McKesson describes itself as “a health care services company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality health care by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality of care and patient safety.” According to </span><a href="http://hoovers.com/mckesson/--ID__10977--/free-co-profile.xhtml"><span style="font-family:arial;">its profile</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> on Hoovers.com, the company is a pharmaceuticals distributor (the biggest in North America) and a medical supplies wholesaler; it also provides software and technical services to insurers and health care providers. The publicly-traded company’s 32,000 employees generated 2008 sales of $101.7 billion.<br /><br />Carrie joined the McKesson Foundation in 2003 and took on her current role last year. She told me that, historically, the company practiced more “traditional philanthropy”, giving small grants to a wide variety of nonprofits because it was the right thing to do. Recently, though, McKesson engaged in a strategic planning process for its community engagement function. As a result, it’s decided to focus its efforts on chronic disease management, beginning with diabetes. <br /><br />McKesson’s approach to this issue goes beyond aligning the company’s cause with its business goals, which has been the extent of strategic philanthropy for most companies. McKesson is also aligning the types of resources it donates with its own comparative advantage. As Carrie points out, the company could have chosen simply to make a grant to a nonprofit that works on diabetes management. Indeed, cash is a resource of which McKesson has plenty – as of December 31, 2008, its </span><a href="http://www.mckesson.com/static_files/McKesson.com/CorpIR/PDF_Documents/10Q_Q3_FY2009_Final.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial;">financial statements</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> indicated that it was carrying nearly $1.2 billion of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet and stockholders’ equity was close to $6.2 billion. However, as I discussed yesterday, McKesson does not have unique access to cash. Instead, it has unique access to its professional expertise – and Carrie told me that the company has professional experience in chronic disease management.<br /><br />According to McKesson’s new strategy, while grantmaking will continue to be a component of its philanthropic strategy, the company will also operate its own social engagement programs – something along the lines of the corporate operating foundation Carrie mentioned in her comment. The company will be contributing its expertise in chronic disease management, which I believe will enable it to contribute resources of greater value than the cash it could contribute for the same cost to the company. Currently, the Foundation is investigating the feasibility of a diabetes cell phone project, whereby automated calls are made to diabetes patients, who respond with information about their blood sugar levels; the technology flags patients that require follow-up. The technology, which Carrie described as inexpensive, has demonstrated decreased ER visits in pilot programs.<br /><br />I’m especially interested in the fact that the company is experimenting with an earned-income strategy for its foundation. The McKesson Foundation hopes that, by selling the program to insurance companies based on the expected cost savings, it will be able to subsidize the cost of providing it free to uninsured patients in community clinics. Through this earned-income approach, Carrie hopes not to get more money into the Foundation’s endowment, but instead to be able to expand this healthcare quality improvement to more patients. <br /><br />I asked Carrie why, given the apparent market opportunity, McKesson is researching this project through the Foundation, instead of a business unit. She told me that, in such a large, geographically dispersed company that provides so many services, “This project is in its infancy, so little data is available to prove the viability of this disease management strategy yet”. She described the company as mission-driven - "everything that we're doing is improving patients’ lives" – so the business unit presidents see all of their possible business opportunities as beneficial to society and, within that, look for the largest profit margins and the largest markets. While the project has not yet met the investment criteria for McKesson’s business units, the corporate social engagement function has the flexibility to take it on if the feasibility study proves successful.<br /><br />I also asked Carrie about some of the challenges she’s facing as she takes this relatively unorthodox approach to corporate philanthropy. She talked a lot about innovation, and the lack thereof in the very traditional field of philanthropy at Fortune 500 companies. She told me that change will have to be driven by the leadership of these companies, or by the analysts who evaluate their activities. She also acknowledges that this approach to social engagement is much easier for her to implement, given the industry in which McKesson operates – “I don't know how that would work if you were looking at a company like Gucci”. I was particularly intrigued by a comment she made earlier in our conversation, about the need to take care in carving out a philanthropic focus area when a company decides to donate the resources it uses to make money – she told me that, when the McKesson Foundation attempted a similar social engagement approach a few years ago, the project ended up in direct competition with one of McKesson’s business offerings. As such, it was important that she identify an area that the company is not in and doesn’t plan to expand into, at least in the near future.<br /><br />I’m really excited by McKesson’s approach. As I said on Monday, I think companies can dramatically increase the impact of their community involvement, without changing its cost to the company in question, by leveraging the very resources that make them successful in business. McKesson has a comparative advantage in providing expertise about chronic disease management, and that’s relatively more valuable that its cash contributions. I look forward to following this story to see how it works out and what we can all learn from McKesson’s approach.</span> </div>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-18912202254983177032009-04-27T00:25:00.002-04:002009-04-27T00:35:05.346-04:00Comparative Advantage and Corporate Philanthropy<p><span style="font-family:arial;">What's the most valuable thing Coca-Cola has to offer? Its brand, certainly, helps it outsell its competitors. I'm sure the company also places great value on its top-secret formula. I'm particularly impressed with the company's distribution network - my friend once saw a Coca-Cola billboard in a rural, rural part of East Africa, hours from the nearest city, and it certainly seems that you can buy a Coke anywhere in the world. <br /><br />Other successful companies have their own unique, highly-valued assets. GE is famous for its leadership development expertise, and McDonald’s has real estate portfolio with an incredible footprint. Microsoft has an enviable amount of cash sitting on its balance sheet, but I'm sure the company is more concerned with hanging on to its talented developers, who create solutions to problems that stand in the way productivity.<br /><br />When Google.org announced its reorganization last month, the company also stated, "…our greatest impact has come when we've attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google's strengths in technology and information". That is, Google.org feels it's had the biggest impact on the social problems it cares about when it has utilized its own most valuable asset - in my interpretation, that includes Google's employees and their unique expertise in using technology to solve problems that stem from a lack of organized, accessible information.<br /><br />This makes a lot of sense to me. When companies put their unique assets to work on social problems, they offer a resource that almost no one else can offer. Furthermore, they can typically make an impact utilizing their existing skills and processes more cost-effectively than a nonprofit partner could buy those services on the open market. One very clear impact of that is in the pharmaceutical sector. Thanks to the economics of the pharmaceutical industry, while fixed costs are very high (drug discovery is ridiculously expensive, and I imagine that setting up manufacturing isn't cheap), marginal costs - the cost of making one extra dose - are fairly low. As such, a pharmaceutical company will have a much greater impact if it donates drugs that cost it a million dollars to make, rather than contributing a million dollars cash, as the recipient of the cash donation would be able to buy a far smaller quantity of drugs than the quantity the company can make for the same cost to the business.<br /><br />Basically, I think it all comes down to </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage"><span style="font-family:arial;">comparative advantage</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Companies might have a lot of cash - maybe even more cash than a lot of the other players in a community. They don't have UNIQUE access to cash, though, and cash isn't the most valuable thing they can offer. So if you have a foundation that could offer a $100,000 grant, and a company that could offer a $100,000 grant OR a service (that the grantee needs) that would cost the company $100,000 to offer but would cost the grantee $200,000 to purchase, wouldn't you want the company to specialize its philanthropy in donating that services? Of course, nonprofits have a need for cash as well, but better for the foundation to specialize in that offering, while the company specializes in something that no other donor can offer as cost effectively.<br /><br />Of course, sometimes a company needs to donate some cash to unlock the value of the donated product or expertise. I recently read a case about Merck's corporate social engagement activities (Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Katharine Lee. "Merck: Global Health and Access to Medicines." Harvard Business School Case 509-048), for a class I'm taking called </span><a href="http://www.hbs.edu/mba/academics/coursecatalog/1908.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">Business at the Base of the Pyramid</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. One part of the case described the company's philanthropic activities in Botswana around 2000, where Merck donated both cash ($56.5 million) and antiretroviral drugs. According to Raymond V. Gilmartin, then Merck's CEO (and now a professor at HBS): </span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span> "It was very clear to many of us that just giving free drugs would not do it. We needed </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span>to</span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span> </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span>engineer an entire supply chain, train health professionals, build infrastructure for testing and treatment. All this and more would be crucial to the success of the program."<br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><br />If Merck had just donated drugs - the resource in which it had a comparative advantage, relative to the other players in the public health space - the drugs might not have ultimately been deployed effectively. However, note that, in this particular initiative, Merck partnered with the Gates Foundation, which also put in $56.5 million in cash - this allowed Merck to redirect its significant but ultimately limited corporate resources to that which it uniquely could offer. Overall, according to the same case, in 2007, Merck donated $828 million, including $62 million in cash (7% of total giving), $161 million through the U.S. Patient Assistance Program (19%), and $605 million via the Merck Medical Outreach Program (73%); the latter two programs, accounting for nearly 93% of total giving, are both product donation programs.<br /><br />Overall, corporate giving in the US, when broken down by cash and non-cash giving, doesn't look like Merck's program. In its </span><a href="http://www.conference-board.org/Publications/describe.cfm?id=1582"><span style="font-family:Arial;">"The 2008 Corporate Contributions Report"</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;">, </span><a href="http://www.conference-board.org/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">The Conference Board</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> surveyed 197 "major" companies regarding their 2007 giving. The survey found that, among the U.S. respondents, 45.77% of giving was cash, while 54.23% was non-cash; interestingly, among non-U.S. companies, 66.20% was non-cash. The </span><a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> (CECP), in its 2008 </span><a href="http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/pdfs/benchmarking_reports/GivinginNumbers2008.pdf"><span style="font-family:Arial;">"Giving in Numbers"</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> report, had somewhat different findings - it surveyed 155 companies, including 69 of the largest 100 public companies in the U.S., and found that 20% of total giving was non-cash. (I'm not sure why this discrepancy exists - my best guess is that the Conference Board survey happened to include a few more of the big pharma companies, which tend both to give more and to give a higher percentage of contributions in the form of non-cash giving - for instance, in the CECP report, which categorized the respondents into eight industries, "health care" was the only one that gave more than half of its contributions in this form.)<br /><br />Either way, though, it's clear that most companies are not focusing primarily on contributing their core competencies, and cash is used as more than a way to leverage non-cash contributions. Based on the logic I've laid out thus far, I don't think that's a good thing. I think it's inefficient for companies to give so much cash when they have more valuable resources available, that the total value of corporate contributions would go up if companies were to focus more on contributing the non-cash resources that make them successful in their core businesses.<br /><br />That said, I have to admit that I'm a bit uncomfortable with the logical conclusion of my argument, that cash contributions by companies would fall significantly. Cash, after all, is much easier to use, and it's much more flexible - it can be deployed to address any number of needs. Companies play an important role in funding the small nonprofits that make up the fabric of a community. Those relatively small grants might not play a big role in the companies' philanthropic strategies, but they might be awfully important to the recipients. As companies become more and more strategic in their community involvement - and I think this is a very, very good thing - what happens to these small organizations, which have for so long received grants just for being local? Big organizations may have well-developed systems for receiving and utilizing product donations; they may have entire departments that can coordinate the use of highly-skilled volunteers, but can your local homeless shelter extract value from a non-cash gift as effectively as it can spend the cash? <br /><br />I think small nonprofits can indeed utilize these resources, but it will take a constellation of intermediary organizations to make this happen. The United Way and community foundations have, for generations, created economies of scale for their local nonprofits by raising money, pooling it, and distributing it in relatively small quantities, to organizations that, individually, might not have been able to afford to build extensive fundraising departments. Today, </span><a href="http://www.taprootfoundation.org/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Taproot Foundation</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> is playing a similar role with skills-based volunteerism. By coordinating teams for professionals in areas like marketing and strategy management and "granting" the teams to nonprofits that might not be able to solicit and manage such pro bono services on their own, Taproot helps bridge the divide described above. Similarly, </span><a href="http://www.giftsinkind.org/"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Gifts In Kind International</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> was able to accept $750 million in product donations last year, from thousands of companies, and distribute them to 150,000 organizations.<br /><br />I also think it's critical to recognize a key area in which most companies do NOT have a core competency - identifying social problems and figuring out how to address them. There are exceptions to this rule - health care companies, for instance, probably have quite a bit of relevant knowledge in-house. In most cases, though, it's important for the corporate partner to acknowledge that it doesn't have a comparative advantage in this piece of the puzzle, while its prospective nonprofit partners do. I think that building strong, thoughtful partnerships is an important way to ensure that each player can individually contribute its own comparative advantage, and that together, the suite of offerings meets the social needs in question.<br /><br />So could Coca-Cola use its amazing distribution expertise to help development organizations solve the </span><a href="http://deliver.jsi.com/dhome/topics/supplychain/lastmile"><span style="font-family:Arial;">"last mile" problem</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> in international development? Could GE invite nonprofit leaders to its leadership courses at Crotonville? Could Microsoft put its developers to work solving the computing needs of the worlds' poor? Could McDonald's engage in a social marketing campaign with incredible reach, given the fact that, every day, millions of people all over the world spend several minutes within an environment that the company controls? <br /><br />Certainly, these companies, and many others, are creating innovative solutions utilizing their comparative advantages - Coca-Cola, for instance,</span><a href="http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/disaster_relief.html"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> donates its distribution expertise and capacity</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> for the purpose of disaster relief, while Microsoft, through its </span><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential/default.mspx"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Unlimited Potential</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;"> program, uses the company's skills and knowledge to create technology products that foster economic and social development at the middle and base of the economic pyramid. If you have other examples, PLEASE post them in the comments section.<br /><br />I think there's a lot of potential for companies to increase their impact without increasing the cost to the company of community involvement. This makes me really optimistic about the future of such social engagement, despite the tough economy. While companies seem to be taking corporate citizenship seriously, I think that we have yet to hit the inflection point, in terms of the impact they can have on the community. I think that focusing on comparative advantage - and recognizing that, in many cases, this means shifting from donating cash to donating expertise or products - will be a major factor in getting there.<br /></span> </p>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-62291329673589364922009-04-17T01:02:00.002-04:002009-04-17T01:07:00.463-04:00News Update<span style="font-family:arial;">Lots of interesting news in <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/">CSRWire</a> recently! A few of the stories in Wednesday's Weekly Alert that I found intriguing:<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/News/15061.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">The Company You Keep: IBM Sustainable Procurement Consulting Service Helps Clients Reduce Costs, Ensure Suppliers Are "Green," Ethical, Safe</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> - IBM has developed a consulting offering through which it will help its clients "establish sustainability standards… throughout their global supplier networks". <br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/News/15040.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">UN Global Compact Annual Review Highlights Progress Made, Identifies Gaps in Corporate Responsibility Practice</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> - Covers results from the "United Nations’ largest-ever corporate responsibility survey" . The short story: "...corporations around the world are making progress in adopting responsible business practices. Yet, serious implementation gaps remain, particularly in supply chain management and subsidiary engagement." (Looks like supply chains are a theme!)<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/News/15051.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">Despite Economic Pressures, Majority of Companies Plan to Increase Emphasis on Sustainability</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> - Reports the findings of a survey by of corporate communications professionals. Favorite quote: "'At a time when the economy requires everyone to stay focused on the essentials, it's noteworthy that businesses are putting sustainability programs into that must-do column,' said Nancy Costopulos, chief marketing officer of the American Marketing Association."<br /><br />Then, from the New York Times:<br /><br /></span><a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/travel/19prac.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">Getaways That Are ‘Guilt Free’</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> - The story is about vacations that won't make you feel guilty about spending a lot of money on a luxury during a recession. It talks fairly extensively about programs that incorporate philanthropy and service into the trip. Will this be a long-term trend in the travel industry? Is it moving beyond the tour operators covered in this story to incorporate hotels and other players in this industry?<br /><br />Have you seen any interesting news lately? Please post a link!</span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-91985554204511943432009-04-15T22:21:00.002-04:002009-04-15T22:25:06.571-04:00Cause Marketing Motivations<span style="font-family:arial;">Why do people buy products that are part of cause marketing campaigns? I've always assumed the obvious, that it was mostly because they care about the cause being promoted. Or maybe they don't care about the specific cause, but they feel good about doing something that makes the world a little better, irrespective of how it does so. I also suspect that sometimes, it's just because the cause promotion helps the product break through the clutter - when you're looking at a wall of nearly identical post-it notes, all at nearly identical prices, the ones with the pink ribbons on the packaging stand out. Similarly, I suspect that, when a company creates a product with a cause marketing component, it gives them a hook when negotiating with retailers for the best possible shelf space, which in turn leads to increased sales.<br /><br />I came across another reason, though, that I think has interesting implications for cause marketers. I'm currently reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Capitalism-Conversation-Buffett-Economic/dp/141659941X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239848552&sr=1-2"><em>Creative Capitalism</em></a></span><span style="font-family:arial;">, the compilation of essays on the title topic, edited by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kinsley"><span style="font-family:arial;">Michael Kinsley</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. Early in the book, Kinsley has included </span><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2008/01-24WEFDavos.mspx"><span style="font-family:arial;">Bill Gates' 2008 speech at Davos</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> that launched that term into the mainstream (that introduced the term, perhaps?). In the speech, Gates has this to say about (RED): "If you give people a chance to associate themselves with a cause they care about, they will pay more, and that premium can make an impact."<br /><br />Notice what Gates does NOT say: "If you give people a chance to" <em>impact</em>, or to <em>contribute</em> to "a cause they care about." He says "<em>to associate themselves with</em>", and that's a fundamentally different concept. Association is not about action, it's about identity. I associate myself with a cause when I wear a particular t-shirt (like Gap's RED shirts), when I join a particular group on Facebook, when I slap a sticker on the back of my car. When I take those actions, I may be raising awareness, I may be winning hearts and minds, but let's focus on association - I'm telling people who I am, what I stand for, and what kind of person I want to be.<br /><br />The fact that (RED) and its ilk seem particularly popular among teens and young adults makes more sense in light of this framework. That population is still in the midst of exploring and trying on identities, so anything that helps someone in this demographic to project his or her identity to peers is attractive. <br /><br />If Gates is right, this is a really powerful concept. If a marketer can get prospective customers to make a product part of the identity they display to the world, that sounds like a gold mine to me - and the money goes to both the Gap and the Global Fund. <br /><br />This also suggests that marketers should think about cause marketing in a really different way than I suspect many currently do. Right now, I imagine that decision-making around cause marketing typically goes in one of two ways. Either the company decides to create a product that raises money for a cause with which the company is already affiliated, as an extension of existing philanthropy, or the company decides to run a cause marketing campaign and searches for a cause with which to affiliate. In the latter case, marketers try to identify a cause that it's customers care about - they may use market research to identify this cause, or they may look for causes with the same target demographic as the company (which is why women's clothing stores seem to turn into a uniform array of pink ribbons every October, in honor of breast cancer awareness).<br /><br />If we take the latter case, the "competition" for the cause-related products (it's awkward to think of it that way, but I think we have to) includes other cause marketing campaigns benefiting the same cause, along with direct donations to the organization in question. It also includes volunteerism or activism that support the cause. <br /><br />On the other hand, if we buy cause marketing products in order to broadcast our identities, the marketer's job is not so simple. While women, as a monolithic group, might have a common reason to be concerned about breast cancer, they are interested in projecting a wide array of different identities. Women who shop at Coldwater Creek and women who shop at New Balance - both companies are members of the </span><a href="http://ww5.komen.org/MillionDollarCouncil.aspx"><span style="font-family:arial;">Komen Million Dollar Council Elite</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> - might want to impact the same causes, but they likely want to project very different identities. That said, these two companies aren't trying to attract "women" as a monolithic group, either. They each have very specific target audiences, which can be delineated in part, I imagine, by exactly this issue of identity.<br /><br />In this case, the competition isn't writing a check - most of us don't write checks big enough to name a building or otherwise make our philanthropy part of our public image. Instead, the competition could be logo t-shirts, or fashion in general, or our Facebook profiles, or the music we play when the car window is down, or any other tool we use to tell the world who we are.<br /><br />This makes the cause marketer's job much more complicated, and probably more difficult. On the other hand, it gives marketers the opportunity to build a deep and unique relationship with the customer, just the type of relationship that goes beyond a transaction to a partnership.</span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-57011155967163855872009-03-30T23:22:00.003-04:002009-03-30T23:31:27.761-04:00Why Just Law?<p><span style="font-family:arial;">Last week, I wrote a couple of posts (</span><a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/recession-special-pro-bono.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">here</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> and </span><a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/update-pro-bono-opportunities.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">here</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">) about law firms deferring starts dates for new hires, and encouraging them (along with recently laid-off employees, in some cases) to take on pro bono jobs, with partial salaries from the law firms. I've been looking for other industries that are doing something similar - that is, recognizing assets that are under-utilized thanks to the business slow-down and loaning them out to nonprofits. Surprisingly, I haven't found much.<br /><br />The lack of a pro bono or in-kind giving spike in industries other than law made me think about what characteristics would make an industry likely to increase such giving in the face of a recession. For instance, it makes sense to me that the legal firm is increasing pro bono activity for the following reasons:</span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;">According to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/16/lawyer.layoff.public/index.html">a recent CNN article</a>, deferring </span><span style="font-family:arial;">start dates can save law firms $100,000 per associate, even when the firms are still paying a partial salary. I imagine that this comes not just from the high salaries that are common in the industry (according to the same CNN article, the median starting salary for lawyers in private practice was $108,500 in 2007), but also from the high cost of training new hires, along with benefits, overhead costs, year-end bonuses, etc.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">All law firms have to sell is their employees' expertise. As such, they are a critical resource - the firms can't allow this recession to have an negative impact their access to talent, or they won't be able to scale back up after it ends.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">By putting new hires to work in a pro bono capacity, these inexperienced attorneys are getting valuable work experience, reducing the training cost to the firm once they come on board.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">The legal industry has an infrastructure in place to handle pro bono work - many firms have pro bono coordinators, many lawyers have pro bono experience, and many nonprofits have experience putting pro bono lawyers to work.<br /> </span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;">So what are principles can we generalize to other industries? I believe that industries are more likely to donate recession-induced excess capacity if they meet some or all of the following criteria:<br /></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;">The resource is costly to the firm - if the firm can get even part of the cost off their books, or if it can extract some value out of the resource, it is motivated to do so.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">The resource is valuable to the firm - the firm will absolutely need this resource after the recession. If the firm disposes of the resource, it will take some time to get it back after the recession ends (inhibiting the firm's ability to scale back up); there may even be a risk that the firm won't be able to recapture the resource.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">If the firm donates this excess capacity to a nonprofit, it will extract more value from the resource than letting it sit idle. The process of being loaned out may actually add value to the resource (e.g., in the case of lawyers doing pro bono work), or the donation may have some other positive benefit to the firm (e.g., improved reputation).</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;">The firm knows how to lend out the resource to a social sector organization; conversely, nonprofits know how to use this resource.<br /><br /></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;">What other industries fit some or all of these criteria, and have seen their business slow down in the face of the recession, thus leaving their resources underutilized? <br /><br />It seems to me that finance firms, with respect to their employees, are facing much the same challenges as law firms. Their employees are highly paid and highly skilled, and the firms' essential product is their employees' skill - they really can't afford to lose these people, as they'll be critical to the firms' success when the economy recovers. Putting these employees to work in a pro bono capacity should indeed add value to the employees, as a training exercise, as there are many nonprofits dedicated to issues that are closely related to the work these employees do for banks and other finance companies. Because many firms have a history of donating time and money to nonprofits that work on financial literacy, the infrastructure for pro bono work is more or less in place (if not as well developed as in law). Because this recession is creating increased demand for nonprofits in this field, they should certainly be able to use this donated resource. <br /><br />So are these companies following the legal industry's lead? JPMorgan put </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2008-04-28-bear-stearns-interns-summer-jobs_N.htm"><span style="font-family:arial;">Bear Stearns summer interns</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> to work in nonprofits last summer, but other than that, I haven't seen significant parallels. My gut reaction is that financial firms are in such significant trouble, that they're beyond these kinds of programs - they're saving the people they can to do the work they have left, but they just have to cut costs wherever they can. As a result, they may face some problems when they scale back up, but they don't have any alternatives. Or is there some other reason that the finance industry isn't engaging heavily with pro bono programs?<br /><br />Consulting is a near-perfect match for law - the hiring process is similar; the types of people hired are very similar; consulting firms also have a pro bono history; their skills are similarly valuable to non-profits; and the nonprofits offer valuable experience for consultants. Furthermore, consulting firms, too, are pushing back start dates. That said, from what I've heard from my many friends going to big consulting firms next year, start dates aren't being pushed back later than January or February; compared to the full year some law firms are delaying their offers, this seems less likely to lead to attrition. (I'd also add that it seems consulting firms have always been pretty flexible about letting employees defer offers to take on short-term positions with nonprofits, even if they don't seem to be creating formal, paid fellowships like the law firms are currently doing.)<br /><br />Moving beyond skilled employees to other types of underutilized assets, the travel industry comes to mind. Hotels, in particular, might have an interesting opportunity to increase in-kind donations. Much of a hotels' costs are fixed - no matter how empty the hotel is, the company still has to pay for the cost of the building itself, along with desk staff, restaurant staff, utilities, etc. Certainly, there is room to scale these costs down if the company expects occupancy rates to decline, but a big portion of these costs are fixed. As such, I expect that the cost of donating rooms - to Make-A-Wish, for instance, or even to nonprofit employees traveling for business purposes - is relatively low; these additional occupants are only incurring the additional fixed costs (e.g., utilities in the room, additional housekeeping, additional wear-and-tear on the room). While the benefit to the company isn't as clear-cut as better-trained employees, there should definitely be a reputational advantage, if the company communicates its donations well.<br /><br />Airlines are somewhat similar - the vast majority of costs are fixed (the plane, most of the fuel), so putting a sick kid on the plane, off to visit a specialist, has very low additional cost to the airline. As with hotels, the recession is decreasing demand and leaving seats empty. Unlike hotels, airlines can reduce the number of flights they run, so they can somewhat reduce their excess capacity; however, to the extent that they aren't able to eliminate it entirely, there may be an opportunity to donates these extra seats to nonprofits.<br /><br />What other industries have seen their business slow down as a result of the recession, leading to excess capacity? Of these, which meet the criteria laid out above, suggesting they may be good candidates for increased pro bono activity or in-kind giving? Or do you have other ideas about what makes an industry a good candidate for such programs? What stands in the way of getting such programs into place?<br /><br />Thanks!</span><br /> </p>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-37218490428811537812009-03-24T17:25:00.002-04:002009-03-24T17:29:36.941-04:00Update: Pro Bono Opportunities<a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/recession-special-pro-bono.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">Yesterday, I wrote</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> about a trend among law firms to put their employees, idle in the face of a recession-induced decline in business, to work for nonprofits. It seems to be a timely topic, as I've come across a few other recent articles on the topic:<br /><br />Also yesterday, </span><a href="http://www.onphilanthropy.com/site/PageServer"><span style="font-family:arial;">onPhilanthropy.com</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> (where I used to serve as Corporate Philanthropy Editor), published </span><a href="http://www.onphilanthropy.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7753"><span style="font-family:arial;">an interview on this subject</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> with Michael A. Rothenberg, Executive Director of </span><a href="http://www.nylpi.org/"><span style="font-family:arial;">New York Lawyers for the Public Interest</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. One of the concerns I highlighted in my post yesterday was that, as the economy recovers, the pro bono resources will be pulled out of nonprofits which have come to depend on them. This interview points out that a number of the attorneys who take on pro bono opportunities will be working on problems that have been created by the recession, like foreclosures. While the economic recovery may mean that pro bono programs scale back to pre-recession levels, it may also mean that the burden on public interest law organizations is decreased. This makes me feel somewhat better about the sustainability of these programs.<br /><br />The onPhilanthropy article directed me to </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/16/lawyer.layoff.public/index.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">this article</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> published by CNN last week. The CNN article gives some good context, including more examples of firms that are encouraging new hires with deferred offers and laid-off employees to go into public service jobs for the time being; it also explains some of the economics that make paying attorneys to work for someone else attractive to law firms. The CNN article refers to students and attorneys with the same big concern that I have - that is, that students who come with a stipend from a law firm will displace those who have always intended to go into public interest law. However, it also quotes individuals that are hopeful that this situation will cause public interest law careers - not just short-term stints - to become attractive to students who might not have otherwise considered anything but corporate jobs. <br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/index.jsp"><span style="font-family:arial;">AmericanLawyer.Com</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> also took on this issue recently, in </span><a href="http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202429204971&Desperately_Seeking_Volunteer_Jobs"><span style="font-family:arial;">an article published on Thursday</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">. The article focuses on the logistical challenges of managing this influx of pro bono resources, and the role that the </span><a href="http://www.probonocounsel.com/templates/System/default.asp?id=39938"><span style="font-family:arial;">Association of Pro Bono Counsel</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> is playing in coordinating solutions to these challenges. The article also addressing the difficulty - and yet the importance - of matching specific lawyers with specific opportunities, to ensure that both parties truly benefit from the experience.<br /><br />Have you read anything else that illuminates this subject, or that illustrates a similar situation in a different industry? If so, please post a link in the comments. Thanks!</span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-56164311506365247922009-03-23T22:23:00.003-04:002009-03-23T22:40:36.613-04:00Recession Special: Pro Bono Opportunities<span style="font-family:arial;">I just read </span><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/23/MNPB16JHP3.DTL&type=business&tsp=1"><span style="font-family:arial;">an article</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> published today on SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's online edition. It details a trend among laid-off workers to seek volunteer opportunities with nonprofits as part of their job search.<br /><br />The article reminded me of a conversation I had over dinner last weekend with a friend who is in law school. She's strongly interested in public interest law, to the point that she's not considering taking a corporate job. Before law school, she worked with two nonprofits, one of which provided legal services to those unable to afford it, and she knows for sure that she wants to do this type of work as soon as she graduates from law school.<br /><br />Over dinner, we talked about the recent trend among big law firms, in the face of the recession, to delay their new associates' start dates. Some of these firms are paying their new hires a partial salary to work in public interest law. According to </span><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/03/20/during-downturn-some-firms-are-paying-lawyers-to-do-good-discuss/"><span style="font-family:arial;">a post this past Friday</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> on the </span><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/"><span style="font-family:arial;">Wall Street Journal's Law Blog</span></a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">"Morgan, Lewis, for instance, has delayed the start date for 68 incoming lawyers by one year, </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">until the fall of 2010. But the firm will pay the lawyers up to $70,000 each if they take on such </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">jobs as litigating at a public defender’s office or providing corporate-law advice to a nonprofit </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">organization. Pillsbury Winthrop has extended a one-year offer to pay salary and benefits to </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">each of 55 laid-off lawyers who takes on a public-interest job. Simpson Thacher has launched </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">a similar program."</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>On face value, this seems like a great CSR move on the part of the law firms. Because of the business slow-down, companies have a lot of underutilized assets sitting around - in this case, that's employees, but in other industries it might include physical assets, too. According to the WSJ blog post, nonprofits are embracing the opportunity to receive this resource:"But for now, the public-interest world is loving it. 'It seemed like manna from heaven when law firms approached us about underwriting the costs of having [lawyers] work for us,' says Dinah PoKempner, general counsel of Human Rights Watch."<br /><br />In talking to my friend, though, a big concern came up. She's worried that this move will create significantly more competition for public interest jobs, and that this will affect her job search. I'm worried about the sustainability factor if her concern is realized.<br /><br />Let's say that incoming lawyers accept such paid "pro bono" opportunities in significant numbers. In year one, this could be terrific for nonprofits - they get access to a significantly larger talent pool, while law firms shoulder some or all of the burden of paying for it. In year two, though, those attorneys go back to their real jobs. Depending on the state of the economy, the nonprofits might get a new crop of untrained employees, or they might get no one.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the students who were dedicated to public interest careers all along may have gotten boxed out of nonprofit jobs, because they didn't come with a nice $70,000 subsidy. But these are the lawyers who would have stayed with the nonprofits long-term, rather than taking their knowledge and training with them back to big firms, leaving the nonprofits to train a fresh batch of inexperienced new hires. This just doesn't seem very sustainable.<br /><br />I absolutely commend businesses that recognize they have assets sitting idle and that work to deploy those resources in a way that serves the community. I think this kind of thinking is the source of a major growth opportunity for corporate community engagement. However, I think we need to give careful thought to how we can implement these programs in a way that is sustainable, that won't leave nonprofits in a lurch when the economy picks up and we can once again fully utilize these assets in our businesses.<br /><br />Does anyone have thoughts or advice on how we can do this, or examples of companies that are doing it well? Thanks!</span><br /></span></span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1147537677737835557.post-66379469473613111232009-03-20T19:03:00.001-04:002009-03-20T19:05:58.749-04:00Engaging Consumers - Starbucks Shared Planet<span style="font-family:arial;">I was in Starbucks earlier today, and saw an poster with this interesting message:<br /><br />"You. <br />Work with 1.2 million people to grow and harvest even better coffee that earns even better prices.<br /><br />Everything we do, you do. You buy coffee at Starbucks. Which means we can work with farmers to help improve their coffee quality and their standard of living. We call it coffee that is responsibly grown and ethically traded. And thanks to you, we've grown big enough to be able to do this kind of good on this kind of scale.<br /><br />Good job, you."<br /><br />The poster ended with messaging for the company's "Shared Planet" CSR campaign, with the tagline "You and Starbucks. It's bigger than coffee."<br /><br />It looks like Starbucks is attempting to engage its consumers in its CSR activities by drawing a clear connection between consumption and the work Starbucks does with coffee farmers. I find this interesting on a few levels. It's great for Starbucks from a business perspective - in the second to last sentence, the company is basically saying that, the more consumers buy, the more good Starbucks can do. For a company that relies on repeat customers, that's a pretty decent sales pitch. Furthermore, in addition to making consumers feel good about buying one more cup of Starbucks coffee, it also educates them about what Starbucks is doing through its CSR program (at a high level), and specifically about what "responsibly grown and ethically traded" means (though the definition isn't very detailed). For a company that makes social responsibility a core part of its brand, it's critical to do this effectively.<br /><br />One thing I thought was missing from the poster was a call to action. Reading the poster, I found it rousing - it told me how effectively I was enabling Starbucks to have a positive impact on coffee growers. Getting to the end of the poster, though, there was no way for me to have a bigger impact, other than buying another latte. <br /><br />I checked out the </span><a href="http://www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet/"><span style="font-family:arial;">Starbucks Shared Planet website</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">, though, and saw some of my questions answered. The website offers customers the opportunity to pledge to use their own mugs for their Starbucks coffee (4,733 people had done so as of 6:50 today), as well as a "Volunteer to Volunteer" section, where website visitors can learn more about volunteer opportunities. In particular, the Starbucks V2V area of the website, which has a social networking component, is designed to be "a catalyst for conversation and connection that inspires people to contribute to a cause greater than themselves". I didn't, however, find any opportunity to have an impact on the issue highlighted in the poster - improving the quality of living in coffee-growing communities - via this website. <br /><br />A few days ago, I </span><a href="http://reimaginingcsr.blogspot.com/2009/03/engaging-consumers-in-csr.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">asked for examples</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> of companies that engage consumers in their CSR activities. This is a very interesting example of such an initiative. I think it has the potential to educate consumers about Starbucks' CSR, thus possibly increasing loyalty; to make customers feel a stronger relationship with the company; and to increase the impact of the company's overall CSR activities. However, this will all depend on how the initiative is executed. The time and effort of Starbucks customers has the potential to be a powerful resource - how will the company deploy it? I look forward to following this initiative, and also to hearing any of your thoughts on this project in the comments section.<br /><br />Enjoy the weekend!</span>Jessica Hubbardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00945912838786584530noreply@blogger.com5