Non-traditional CSR Research Study: 2 things every Corporate Social Responsibility Manager should be doing, but isn't
Overview: After talking to more than 50 companies across the country who give back, we were shocked to learn these findings. We complied them for you to give you two tips that are being clearly missed by most CSR managers. Hint: they have to do with measuring the actual business impact of your charitable initiatives.
CSR. Philanthropy. Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Responsibility. Corporate citizenship. Sustainability. Volunteerism.
Whatever you call it, all of these efforts are incredible ways to show your company cares about something bigger than just selling your product or service.
Most companies have at least a few people or a department dedicated to giving back efforts to the community. You get to a certain size and you realize you can’t get away with not doing it anymore. Or for lots of companies, giving back is built into the lifeblood of who your company is. Often, starting with the passion of a few champions who care deeply about a cause.
No matter where your charitable initiatives started, or why, give yourself a pat on the back because you are the future of business.
Because as I’m sure you know since you’ve dedicated your career to it, giving back is important in business. (This blog isn’t about that though, so if you want to read more on why CSR is important, check out this blog on the importance of communicating your social value before your product value)
This blog is about all CSR managers. And what they should be doing.
But most aren’t.
We’ve been chatting with more than 50 companies across the country who are all doing some form of giving back. In all different industries and company sizes (but mostly spanning 1000-10000 employees).
And this is what we’ve learned:
First, we asked these CSR managers if they think they have a clear CSR strategy.
60% of them said they believe they have a clearly defined CSR or giving back strategy. And the rest all said they at least do some type of “here and there” volunteering or donating.
Then we asked the question that no one ever wants to answer… honestly that is.
WHY?
Why do you do it?
For those of you who have dedicated your careers to this, we often want to give long winded answers about saving water, or children, or the cute pandas.
The social impact behind CSR is great. And it should be the reason why you do it. Because that’s what keeps corporate social missions truly authentic.
But for most non Fortune 500, for profit companies, who don’t have endless amounts of money and resources to expend, it can’t be the only reason.
After hearing the passionate descriptions of the social impact each company is driving with their CSR, I pried in deeper and finally learned more about the business goals behind each company’s CSR programs.
75% of businesses admitted they were doing CSR for their reputation.
To look good in the community. Like Beyonce in this GIF ???♀?
To make people love their brand. Both with employees, and customers.
It was a "feel good" goal they could agree on.
These answers I finally heard in these personal conversations are what no one ever wants to talk about.
That’s why we decided to begin this research in the first place. Because I was having an impossible time finding any articles or concrete data around the benefits of doing CSR.
Out of all the companies we talked to, only 25% said they’re measuring the business ROI on their CSR, apart from social impact. And even the ones who said they were, still had very lofty ideas of how they were accomplishing these goals.
So most are setting goals to better their reputation or perception in the community, but they're having trouble actually measuring how they're meeting those goals.
They're missing the ball.
This brings me to the two things every CSR manager should be doing, but isn’t:
#1 Setting clear, concrete business goals.
What we heard from the business goals most CSR managers are setting is that the goals themselves are lofty. I heard statements like these over and over again:
“We want to be the company that our community loves” Or, “We want our employees to want to work here”
Don’t get me wrong. Those are incredible goals to have. At a high level. But, if you don’t set more concrete milestones, how will you ever achieve those high level goals?
That brings me to the other major part of the equation most CSR managers are missing:
#2 Measuring the clear business ROI.
Most CSR Managers are missing the clear action steps to get there.
Out of all the companies we talked to, I was shocked to hear this finding:
60% of them admitted they’re not regularly marketing their charitable initiatives externally to their customers.
And for those that said they were marketing their CSR to their customers, they admitted they’re having trouble measuring the engagements with their initiatives. And they’re having even more trouble tying those engagements back to business goals.
They admitted the same with their employee engagements.
These findings lead me to this important conclusion:
Most CSR managers have a huge missed opportunity.
Not marketing your CSR initiatives is like keeping the milk in the fridge while you eat warm chocolate chip cookies. It's a huge missed opportunity!
Corporate Social Responsibility is the single most authentic and personal way to connect with your community today. With employees, customers, and the general public.
While most of your competitors are in ‘feature battles” like this one:
"Our ?? are the most comfortable." "Our?? is the fastest."
"Oh and by the way, did you know we're the best ?? makers too?"
You have the opportunity to talk about something different. To connect with your community on a deeper level. This feature battle strategy is becoming increasingly ineffective when it comes to igniting a movement of followers to love your brand. Your community expects you to be giving back in unique and authentic ways.
The major reasons for this shift in priorities are:
#1 Millennials expect it...
We now have a massive generation of Millennials, accounting for nearly a third (30 %) of our U.S. population, and spending $200 billion annually.
84% of millennials make charitable donations and 74 % are more likely to pay attention to a company’s message if it has a deep commitment to a cause.
The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey revealed that “56% of Millennials have ruled out working for a company if their values don’t align with their own. Many value purpose ahead of profit and therefore value businesses that focus on social responsibility as much as revenue” (The Happiness Index).
#Employees expect it...
The Cone Communications Employee Engagement study revealed that 51% of employees won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments and 74% say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided opportunities to make a positive impact at work.
(^stat found from Huffington Post)
#3 And, you guessed it. Customers expect it, ya’ll!
91% of consumers claim CSR is a crucial part of their purchase decisions.
More than 88% of consumers think companies should try to achieve their business goals while improving society and the environment. And 83% of consumers think companies should support charities and nonprofits with financial donations.
In 2015, Nielson published its annual Global Corporate Sustainability Report. It indicated that, globally, 66% of consumers are willing to spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand.
So back to the actual business impact of CSR.
Only few studies have been done to prove the actual business impact of CSR, because most companies are shy about releasing this information.
But, Giving in Numbers, a study published by the CECP that analyzes giving and corporate societal engagement trends, revealed companies that increased giving by at least 10 percent between 2013 and 2015 actually experienced upticks in revenue and pre-tax profit, while all other companies saw a decrease in both.
Some great examples of companies whose brands have been elevated so drastically by their social mission that their products have become secondary, are Patagonia, Warby Parker, Tom’s, Clif Bar, and Ben and Jerry’s.
(^One of Patagonia's CSR Marketing campaigns to demonstrate their social value over their product value)
(^Ben & Jerry's climate change awareness product)
If you’re a CSR Manager, you know you’re driving meaningful business impact like these companies. You can feel it. You hear all the comments from your sales team and your HR team about how much everyone’s loving the work you’re doing. All the positive correlations.
But you just don’t know with concrete data.
This is exactly why we started our Boston based startup Because. Our ultimate mission is to empower all business to be able to make a meaningful social impact, but we recognize that by building a clear business case for giving back, we can not only help more businesses to give, but help businesses like yours to give more.
We’re building a CSR Customer Intelligence platform to help Marketing & CSR teams strategize & quantify profitable CSR efforts.
If you’re interested in learning more about what we're up to at Because, reach out to me at [email protected]