Corporate Social Responsibility makes a difference.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility (also known by its acronym, CSR) is an initiative or concept that organisations choose to implement in their business, and then self-regulate ongoing.
The purpose of a CSR initiative is to improve a companies environmental, social and economic impact on the world around them. This is done through actively engaging in, or investing in worthy actions, causes and philosophies.
In other words it is your company choosing to take part in positive activities that help the world around us, even when you are not obliged to. It’s about giving back.
Why is CSR important?
Society is becoming more aware of their impact on the world around them. With our access to unprecedented information at the touch of our finger tips, social and economic issues around the globe are highlighted in ways never before seen.
Your shareholders, staff, customers and stakeholders all are aware of these.
What kind of company they associate with and work for is becoming more of a factor in peoples life choices. Increasingly customers are actively looking for companies who can demonstrate that they understand their impact socially, environmentally or ethically and those customers will gravitate to companies who share the same values they do.
What is CSR not?
This has always been a difficult question to answer. However here are a few things a true CSR initiative is not.
- A pet project from a handful of senior executive level individuals, that does resonate with the wider organisation.
- Propaganda to be used solely for the purpose of advertising or branding.
- Token gestures that benefit only one side or neither.
None of the above demonstrate the genuine potential CSR has to enhance an organisation, engage it’s staff and make a real sustainable contribution to the world we live in. True corporate social responsibility is about making a difference.
> Find out how Sustainably Run Meetings makes a difference.
Tips for creating those starting
csr
Values & Impact
Find out from your stakeholders what values are most important and think how your business can support these. Then consider what impact your business has on the world around it, and what activity would help offset that impact.
Focus
There are so many good causes out in the world today and all are worthy of supporting. However logistically and practically it is hard to constantly spread resources and attention too thin. Ensure you are clear with your cause and really focus in on it. This approach allows you to make more of an impact. If the initiative is beyond your companies capacity to achieve, it will deliver the objective for you or your business.
Learn
The more you and your stakeholders are involved in the CSR initiative, the more you learn and the more awareness you raise. The deeper understanding you have of the cause and the more that story can become part of your company culture.
Choose wisely
Getting the right partner who can help your company deliver it’s CSR initiatives is hugely important. Select those who will benefit from your activity, and where you will benefit from being in that relationship.
CSR Challenges
Corporate social responsibility is key for many businesses. Yet it comes with challenges.
Communication
Telling your CSR story is often one of the hardest things to achieve. Sustainably Run Meetings allows you to reach a truly global audience of internal and external customers, quickly and effectively.
Budgets
With Sustainably Run Meetings you can easily forecast how your CSR budget will be used. Then control and monitor how frequently, by who and when.
At £1.23 for every tree planted, it’s easy to understand just how many people your CSR initiative will reach.
Participation
Getting involvement in your CSR initiatives from the wider organisational team is often a logistics and communication challenge.
With Sustainably Run Meetings you can choose to involve all of your employees or just one, no matter where your teams are located.
Improvements
Demonstrating how CSR initiatives have helped a brand can be difficult. However with Sustainably Run Meetings we actively encourage user reaction and interaction.
Getting feedback, social noise and positivity, makes it easier to measure the impact on your organisations performance and its brand.
The Cause
How do you select a cause that resonates with all your internal team?
Planting trees helps environmental sustainability, supports developing nations and focuses on communities who lack the basic opportunities many of us take for granted.
The Green Earth Appeal is a proven, established initiative that demonstrates social responsibility on multiple levels.
Stories
Truly great CSR initiatives create stories. Yet finding those stories and making them powerful is often a difficult challenge.
With Sustainablly Run Meetings we help you create stories that involve everyone, from your teams to your customers, to the people you help support.
Communication
Telling your CSR story is often one of the hardest things to achieve. Sustainablly Run Meetings allows you to reach a truly global audience of internal and external customers, quickly and effectively.
Budgets
With Sustainably Run Meetings you can easily forecast how your CSR budget will be used. Then control and monitor how frequently, by who and when.
At £0.99 for every tree planted, it’s easy to understand just how many people your CSR initiative will reach.
Participation
Getting involvement in your CSR initiatives from the wider organisational team is often a logistics and communication challenge.
With Sustainably Run Meetings you can choose to involve all of your employees or just one, no matter where your teams are located.
Improvements
Demonstrating how CSR initiatives have helped a brand can be difficult. However with Sustainably Run Meetings we actively encourage user reaction and interaction.
Getting feedback, social noise and positivity, makes it easier to measure the impact on your organisations performance and its brand.
The Cause
How do you select a cause that resonates with all your internal team?
Planting trees helps environmental sustainability, supports developing nations and focuses on communities who lack the basic opportunities many of us take for granted.
The Green Earth Appeal is a proven, established initiative that demonstrates social responsibility on multiple levels.
Stories
Truly great CSR initiatives create stories. Yet finding those stories and making them powerful is often a difficult challenge.
With Sustainably Run Meetings we help you create stories that involve everyone, from your teams to your customers, to the people you help support.
We'll plant your first 30 trees for free*
