Hill & Knowlton recently completed a comprehensive
survey on corporate contributions made by the Fortune 500 to
victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tsunami Dec.
26, 2004. But rather than just track financial donations among
Fortune 500 companies ($250 million to date in cash,
products or services), H&K used the relief effort as an
opportunity to gauge employee attitudes on civic responsibility.
While the numbers are encouraging, they still indicate corporate
America still has a lot of explaining to do to when it comes to
what motivates CSR:
- 55% of respondents believe it is their company's civic
responsibility to make a contribution to the crisis, while 13% felt
it was only their responsibility if governments could not raise
enough money. Six percent said they should give only if the company
had staff or operations in the area. - 71% of respondents said a company's civic and social
responsibility reputation are important to them when seeking
employment, while 29% said it was unimportant. - 4 in 10 respondents said their companies created or joined an
effort to help victims of the tsunami.
Of this group (the 40% that got involved):
- 65% of respondents said their company's motivation to give was
driven by management's desire to help, while 19% felt the
motivation to give was driven by fear of being viewed by the public
as not having done anything and 16% believe employees had motivated
their management to do something. - 65% of respondents said their company's contributions were
generous, while 34% said it was adequate and 1% felt it was not too
generous. - 89% of respondents were pleased that their companies had done
something, while 6% said they did not care and 2% said they wished
their companies had done more
(This survey was conducted from January 14 -18, 2005, with an
overall margin of error of +/- 4.5% at the 95% confidence level. A
total of 475 results were received.)
Contact: Michele Quintaglie, 617.451.6102 x228, [email protected].