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…)

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…)

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?