causenation

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…)

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?