causenation

To be successful today as corporate citizenship / corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals, there are few excuses for not knowing your company’s activities and business cold.  

As hundreds of corporate executives gather for the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Annual Conference, it is time for a POP QUIZ – how well do you know your business?

How did you do?

If you scored 5/6, well  done!  Our guess is that if you are that connected to your business, then are you are probably also driving citizenship activities toward business results.  Most likely you are positioning CSR as a set of solutions and have already earned a seat at numerous strategy tables.  Please share your journey with causenation. 

If you scored 3/6, you get a (more…)

Mark Feldman pumping water while visiting development projects in Zambia

Today is World Water Day. I’ve been working on clean drinking water issues for years and was inspired to check in.

Unfortunately, the world water crisis is as dire as ever: 

• Nearly one billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
• Almost 4,500 children die each day to water related diseases.

There are no simple solutions.  Water issues are complicated by geographies, politics, cultures, and poverty.  Not only is water essential for life,  but access to safe drinking water is directly correlated to improvements in personal health, educational achievement, and worker productivity. 

Over the past several years, corporate interest in water issues has moved from being cold, to warm, to now being “hot.”  We’ve been watching three positive trends: (more…)

One of the places we look for the vital signs of causenation is in popular culture. We admit it, we’re fascinated. From celebrities using their fame to bring attention to important issues, to the “been there, done that” rubber wristbands, we love to see how cause, culture, companies, and citizen action collide to spark or fuel a movement or illuminate a trend in causenation.

Over the years we’ve seen an increase in companies using their advertising to advance a cause, issue, or nonprofit. Early on, companies were only pushing products linked to a cause – likely because that was the extent of their commitments. Today they are using advertising to express values; communicate their expertise or business practices related to social issues; and leverage existing CSR and community programs.  Our favorites make the business case for integrating social issues and bring the viewer to that crossroad of strengthened businesses and positive societal impact.

One of the best in our opinion is IBM’s Tree Hugger ad.  We love it for its self deprecating humor, creativity, and the fact that the business case is so rock solid you can’t help but support it.   Others we like …. (more…)

Paul Levy of Beth Isreal Deaconess Hospital

In today’s Boston Globe, columnist Kevin Cullen wrote about a magnificent move by Beth Israel Hospital CEO Paul Levy. Levy asked higher-wage earning employees to think creatively about how they could collectively shoulder some of the cost-cutting burden to save the jobs of the hospital’s lower-wage earning employees. Levy reported receiving hundreds of emails an hour and his bold request and gesture generated a rousing round of applause from the employees gathered. We think this is leadership at its best, at the time it is needed most.

The fact is, and it’s no surprise, employees all over America are hurting. And we’re not just talking about those who have recently been laid off with the massive cutbacks rippling across corporate and nonprofit America alike. (more…)

You won’t be surprised to hear that another set of indicators from the Conference Board point downward for 2009.  Corporate philanthropy will dive this year – thirty-five percent of companies surveyed by the Conference Board said they would make fewer grants this year and another twenty-two percent are considering reductions. 

However, there is also good news for causenation.  In this time of need, companies and individuals are embracing volunteerism.  Forty-five percent of companies in the Conference Board survey say that they will be increasing resources dedicated toward corporate volunteerism.  USA Today reported this week that applications are soaring at government-funded service programs like Peace Corps, Teach for America and Americorps.  Buoyed by the President’s call to action and uncertainty in job market, community service is coming of age again. (more…)

It’s almost Spring and a new wave of CSR-related rankings have been hitting the presses. Fortune Magazine just released its 2009 World’s Most Admired Companies and 100 Best Companies to Work For lists.  Business Week unveiled its Top Customer Service Champs.  And Friday, CRO Magazine gave us its 100 Best Corporate Citizens.   Not to be outdone, the Financial Times and JustMeans just released their new 2008/2009 Corporate Social Innovation Award Winners.

If you doubt that senior executives are paying attention, watch how quickly the companies ranked near the top of the lists share these rankings on their websites and through press releases.  Although the lists still tend to be rather subjective, making the list is a badge of honor that is driving internal business decisions.  Great!

We are just starting to analyze these lists to look for trends.  All we can say is that we hope that more and more companies try to claw their way to the top of these lists through innovative CSR practices.

What interesting trends have you uncovered in these lists?

Don’t waste another minute – we actually don’t think it matters what you call it. Citizenship. Sustainability. Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Involvement.

The labels are all around us, yet they are the least important part of the equation. No one label is exactly right, and none of them are wrong. This evolving discipline represents diverse objectives, strategies, tools, initiatives, and intentions.

Labels aside, what is imperative is that each organization brings its values into practice; embraces them as their own; and does so with a shared vision and common language to set goals, develop strategies, implement programs, and monitor progress.

In the end what is really important is that as professionals we each lead, teach, and communicate in a way that makes sense for our organizations, so that our stakeholders can play their role in strengthening business and impacting society.

What are you calling “it,” how does that work for your company?

As President Obama and Congress go to work trying to breathe life into the economy, we thought it wise to take the pulse of causenation and see how it’s fairing in these strained times. We talked with dozens of folks from across the spectrum of professionals who have some skin in the Citizenship game.

What we’re hearing across the board – from foundation heads to corporate CSR teams, from corporate communications VPs to community relations and public affairs managers is this: Everyone is tightening their belts and trying to do more with the same or fewer resources. But the real challenge they are facing is how to meet the demands of the economy and continue to move the ball forward on their Citizenship efforts. Because no one we talked to is getting pushback that Citizenship is any less of a priority, in fact, just the opposite. The emphasis is great; the resources just aren’t the same.

So we’re asking, how can we continue to sow the seeds of Citizenship? How can we hold tight to the traction that corporate America has been gaining on critical business and social objectives at this time when the country needs stability and progress most? While few seem to be able to do anything new, we think it is precisely the right time to renew – commitments, assets, partnerships, and strategies.

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