Mac's Musings
Corporate Social Responsibility
06/11/2007A couple of months ago I was asked by High Peak CVS, which promotes sustainability among community and voluntary groups, if I could help them make a DVD about their work. I've been on their board of trustees for more than a year and I was happy to help out. Watch it here.
High Peak CVS is a hard-working and effective organisation which does much good work in the community where I live, but like many similar organisations it depends on some voluntary support to keep it going. This kind of help labours under the rather weighty title of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility isn't a phrase widely used in the UK outside quite large companies. It isn't practised much beyond these confines either. But it is a concept widely understood by firms big and small in the United States.
In simple terms it means engaging with your community - on a national, regional or local basis - to support charities and voluntary organisations which need corporate guidance or financial support. At the top end it's Bill Gates giving away a couple of billion dollars a year to maintain major charities in Africa; or it may be simply giving up a few hours a month to help fundraising for your local school.
Whatever it is, it's something firms large and small can do to put something back into the community. Accountants, for example, often give their time as treasurers to small charities and many law firms carry out pro bono work. But it goes much further than this. Almost all smaller charities and voluntary organisations need professional help and advice that they could never afford at market prices - PR, marketing, purchasing, architectural, health and safety, IT, employment advice and many others.
The value of this free help is often out of all proportion to the time and effort you put in.
Yet many firms don't want to get involved. They see it as an irritating distraction from the serious business of making money. This misses the point. Of course, many medium-sized and small firms have to work very hard to make a living but CSR can actually be an effective tool for developing your business.
It's the purest form of netting or networking and you really do meet other like-minded business people who are very likely to refer you business. And it's very rewarding in its own right.
