Corporate Social Responsibility – How to make it work
My working life for over 35 years has been spent in the voluntary sector. Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR didn’t really become a ‘thing’ for me until the last 15 years, raising it’s head just after the millennium. Sometimes it works really well and other times it can be dismal for all parties – why is this?
I am a great believer in ‘Looking backward to plan forward’ so I did a bit of digging to understand some of the history behind CSR.
It was badged as early as the 50’s as “doing good deeds for society”. At that time it was called social responsibility. Unsurprisingly, the original concept started much earlier than that and there is evidence way back in history of many examples of people working out social responsibility from educating children from deprived backgrounds through to providing housing in the form of ‘the workhouse’, caring for orphans – the list goes on. The heart of social responsibility is, basically, to encourage people to become ‘good neighbours’. The concept involves two phases. On the one hand, it means not doing things that spoil the neighbourhood. On the other, it may be expressed as the voluntary assumption of the obligation to help solve neighbourhood problems. It is the latter definition that resonates with me and really brought me, as CEO of a charity, into the CSR World.
I am afraid that most of us in the charity world only, initially, saw CSR as a way to bring in additional funding to support work that was more and more in demand, due to shrinking social care provision. The environmental factors were a little lost on us with the focus on shrinking funding from trusts due to recession and plummeting interest rates as well as local authority grants being tightened with the beginnings of austerity.
Also, my perception was that some companies viewed CSR as a way of gaining buy in as they advertised their ‘partnerships’ with charities that resonated with their customer base. When this is the overwhelming driver for taking part in CSR, in my opinion, it is likely to fail.
One such disastrous CSR partnership for my organisation was with a local branch of a larger national Company. I would hasten to add that this was a one-off case and subsequent partnerships were very successful. On this occasion, the manager who had targets to meet, staffing issues and a ‘top down’ mandate to engage in CSR with a local charity appointed one of his most junior staff members to partner with our charity who had been chosen by public vote. The poor young man who had been tasked with the job of motivating the staff to fundraise, liaise with our charity and engage the public had not got a clue and was given no support or training. He also had no connection with our charity, didn’t understand our work or our client group. Also, unbelievably, he was given no budget for any publicity information. My first meeting with him was painful, to say the least and I realised that I was not only going to have to support him with expertise and time but also with some of our financial resources as well. After suggesting a few ideas that would have had any accredited fundraiser shaking in their boots, I guided the young man on some tried and tested approaches. To cut a long story short, we spent a rather frustrating year heavily supporting some rather underperforming fundraising events and were presented a cheque which barely covered our investment in printed banners, leaflets and publicity. I am fairly sure, also, that there was very little benefit for the corporate staff either – for the manager it was another pressure, the inexperienced young man was out of his depth and struggled to get any support and the staff were generally not engaged at all – a real lost opportunity all around.
So, what went wrong? Let me tell you about a successful CSR partnership and you can be the judge – we were chosen, again by public vote, by a branch of a national organisation. They appointed a middle manager to oversee the work and this person had a personal interest in our work as she was connected by friendship to one of our beneficiary’s families. She totally got what we were doing and was a great ambassador back at the branch, inspiring her team and her managers to get involved. The first thing that the group did was to volunteer their time at an event which brought them into contact with our beneficiaries. Immediately, the wider staff group ‘got’ what we did and were connected. We had now started a relationship. There was a real sense of partnership and our charity workers felt a bond with the organisations staff. There was two way communication and a shared sense of success. It sounds a bit cliché but it felt like the staff had become part of the charity’s family. The end result was a significant amount of money raised in the first year and a real bond with the staff. They chose the charity for a second year and then a third. The managers took an active part and, as far as I am aware, the relationship is still on-going. A real win-win all round and the ultimate winners were the beneficiaries of the charity who received more services.
Another area that is badged as CSR is the team event – this is where a team from a corporate gets involved and, usually, paints a room or renovates an area of ground. This, in itself is great, but CSR cannot be encompassed solely by this approach. Our charity quickly ran out of rooms and could not accommodate the number of requests of this type that we received. It also is quite limiting. Most team events can only happen between 9.30 – 4.30 pm during the week. Most of our building renovations had to happen outside of these times as the buildings were occupied by our beneficiaries receiving a service – this caused a big dilemma. On one hand, we didn’t want to turn down a generous offer of free labour and, often, donated materials. On the other hand, we had to manage the health and safety issues of large teams working in confined places with vulnerable people using the facilities.
Oh, how I longed for a corporate to come along and ask when the best time would be but I knew my answer ‘after 5 pm or at the weekend’ would not have fitted with their requirements. The other issue was when some of the team had never picked up a paint brush in their lives and ‘practised’ on my cherished buildings. I can remember one such team coming with such enthusiasm and gusto that they were an absolute delight. However, my poor husband and myself had to spend the best part of a week of evenings the next week rectifying the cutting in and cleaning up the paint splashes on our carpet. He was heard to mutter ‘I could have painted this myself in less time!’ Such ingratitude!
One of my most cherished memories of a corporate team working to their strengths was a group of engineers who I met with and discussed a particular problem we had in accessing the play area in wheelchairs. They went away and found a solution – which was outside of our charity’s budget – then fundraised to pay for the solution, brought in a team of skilled engineers who worked tirelessly on a hot summer’s day and put in a most marvellous under grass path which is still being used. Apart from the initial meeting and providing cups of team during the day, our input was minimal. Marvellous!
So, what is the answer to the CSR dilemma that can stop charity workers (such as me) seeming terribly ungrateful for the wonderful offers from our corporate partners? What will work that also meets the needs for team building, exposure and a sense of fulfilment for the corporate partner?
I think if we rebadge the acronym CSR this can identify the elements that will make it work:
C – commitment. Firstly, the corporate must select a staff member to oversee the partnership who has the right skills and give them time to carry out the role. This is an initial commitment of time and money from the corporates, and should not be underestimated. This will help them to understand the charity and to determine what might work for both of them. The commitment, however, has to be two-way. The charity also must be prepared to invest time into the partnership or it won’t work. They have to be honest with each other from the outset and this could mean that, at the first meeting, they both recognise it won’t work and walk away. However, if they do agree to work together there needs to be absolute commitment from both sides.
S – senior manager buy in. A well meaning staff member might be able to promote the cause and, often this is the way it starts, but without senior manager buy in from the outset, it will not have the impact that will work for both partners. The best CSR programmes I have been involved in have been when the Senior Managers have rolled up their sleeves and got involved in stone picking, greenhouse construction, fire walking or space hopper bouncing (yes – that really did happen!)
R – relationship. It is all about relationship. The charity needs to bring the corporates into their vision and values, help them understand the mission of the charity and the needs of the beneficiaries. The corporates need to articulate what they can and can’t do from the outset. The relationship needs to be kept alive by regular communication, updates, celebrating success and thanks along the way.
Where there is a good CSR programme, the benefits outweigh the effort put in and everyone wins. However, do not underestimate the time needed to make it work. As my mother always said “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well” and this applies to CSR big time!
Written by Janet Down