Corporate Social Responsibility

In the wake of Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday, a counterpunch to consumerism started in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. People around the world are encouraged to donate to worthy causes, and some noteworthy names have been leading the charge

Brands, in an effort to get out a shareable tweet or a super-likeable post, are often caught in a daily trap of shallow engagement with its communities. Your stakeholders — humans just like you and… Continued

Your first inclination when hearing the story about Mylan and its EpiPen is to categorize it. Put it in a place alongside similar tales. That’s normal. It’s what the human brain does to make sense of incoming stimuli. The EpiPen saga seems like an easy one to handle. We who follow news of brands, particularly in the pharmaceutical space, have seen it before.

Your first inclination when hearing the story about Mylan and its EpiPen is to categorize it. Put it in a place alongside similar tales. That’s normal. It’s what the human brain does to make sense of… Continued

When a company does something good and no one notices, what is the impact? Companies create philanthropic or charitable initiatives as part of their CSR programs for many reasons. Because there is the notion that CSR campaigns are created to cover up bad behavior, some corporations shy away from publicizing these efforts to stakeholders. They worry that if they do, they are signaling that there is a reason behind the strategy and will come under attack.

You’re halfway through what’s been a rather interesting year in business, politics, brand successes and blunders and Game of Thrones developments. Which is to say: you still have another five solid months to make this… Continued

Corporate social responsibility programs simply can’t have any real lifespan without the work of professional communicators. The best PR pros breathe life into CSR programs by creating ongoing dialogues between a program’s creators and a company’s employees and C-suite, journalists, the public at large on digital channels and communities that stand to benefit from the program itself.

The topic of issues management has been around for decades. It’s examined and debated regularly in the PR industry mainly because it can be a very broad, overarching concept.

When the pressure of crisis management and an often-thorny public policy process are added to the mix, a conundrum can develop, especially for communicators with little to no experience in one or all of these areas. Issues management around public policy must be woven into an organization’s culture early, not just when things are tanking.

Doing corporate responsibility well is not as easy as it appears. Facebook has learned that lesson more than once with its Safety Check feature, which hit another snag in Pakistan last weekend when the inquiring message that was supposed to be sent to those in and around Lahore, Pakistan, went to Facebook users as far away as the U.S.

Winner: Duke Energy – Water Resources Fund The Water Resources Fund is an ongoing, sustainable effort that continues to impact communities. With this initiative, Duke Energy plans to fund approximately 150 community projects from 2015-2020… Continued