As corporate social responsibility continues its rise to prominence and stature within organizations, it’s imperative that the exuberance toward CSR be tempered with caution. This is particularly true when choosing an initiative that ultimately becomes the “face” of an organization’s CSR program. As PR executives are presented with great opportunities to enhance their value within the organization, setting the CSR strategy—and choosing the right initiative—become crucial.
PR News recently spoke with CSR experts from both the corporate and agency worlds, to find out their strategies, tactics and best practices in selecting the right CSR initiative for an organization.
The proper selection of a CSR initiative starts when an organization is setting its overall CSR strategy, says Trent Ross, senior VP of Ipsos Public Affairs.
“You want to triangulate,” says Ross. “Connect what drives your organization’s overall reputation, the critical issues that you face and the messages you want to convey, both internally and externally.”
Failure to triangulate, says Ross, results in the “scattered” CSR effort. Ross, based in Ipsos’ Washington, D.C., office, sees this happen with some clients.
“Organizations get a request for support from the community, they decide to do it without much thought, and it ends up being a shotgun approach. What an organization needs is a rifle,” says Ross.
Ross adds that because most companies’ CSR budgets have been decreased due to the downturn, “it’s imperative to focus your effort for the most bang for your buck.”
RESEARCH THE ISSUES
And for organizations that lack the resources for deep research of potential CSR initiatives, Ross suggests reaching out to the community first. “Talk to community groups and representatives and find out what’s important to them. Find out where their needs match your goals,” he says. Another low-cost technique is media monitoring of local and regional communities. “Discover what the issues are for these communities, and start to think about how they can align with your organization’s goals,” says Ross.
ALIGN WITH KEY BUSINESS FUNCTIONS
A focus on CSR’s alignment with business goals and values will go a long toward making the right choice of initiatives, says James Wright, managing director of CSR, sustainability and not-for-profit at London-based PR agency Grayling.
Wright says that the strongest CSR initiatives today involve such alignment. “Ask yourself what issues are affecting your business as well as communities, and how can your expertise help solve the problem,” he says.
Ross says that in the past, PR almost exclusively drove the CSR process. “Now we’re finding it’s increasing interdisciplinary. Communications has the levers to pull, but it doesn’t have the money. Marketing has the money,” he says. “That’s why it’s imperative to unite those two functions so PR can get access to those dollars.”
INVOLVE ALL EMPLOYEES
As for a choosing process, Wright suggests first building a team of key internal stakeholders, including a high-ranking executive or board member, representatives from HR and finance, and the PR or CSR team. “Pick three or four initiatives that align well with your organization’s goals,” says Wright. “Then go out and consult with the broader employee base on the merits of those initiatives.”
Getting employees involved in the process is the key to CSR efforts at Amerigroup. All 4,000 of the managed care companies employees have some say in what CSR initiatives to adopt, says Peter Lobred, VP of communications at Amerigroup. Its CSR efforts are led by the Real Caring Steering Committee, comprised of executives and mid-level and frontline employees from the entire company.
All initiatives considered tie into Amerigroup’s mission statement: to help support and care for the vulnerable populations in communities nationwide. “If a group of employees or particular department identifies a philanthropic organization or related effort that is consistent with our mission, the Real Caring Steering Committee supports the notion of that department ‘owning the effort,’” says Lobred. “This is not only practical and efficient, it’s rewarding to the associates to know that their voice is heard and they can help guide the direction of our volunteer efforts.”
USE AN ORGANIZATION’S EXPERTISE
While Amerigroup supports local community organizations nationwide through volunteerism, Wright says another strategy is to use your organization’s expertise as a strategic resource. “For example, British Telecom helps charities set up call centers and health organizations’ help lines,” says Wright.
Ross cites Ipsos’ recent work with a food company as an example of putting its expertise and resources to work. “They were interested in doing different things in the community, but were already working with food banks,” he says. “We convinced them to amplify those efforts,” says Ross.
MEASURE INITIATIVES
In some instances, says Wright, as a business and its mission evolves, the alignment with CSR initiatives changes. That’s why it is important to create and regularly use a scorecard that measures the single purpose of the CSR program versus the business and social benefits of the initiative.
“Use the scorecard to decide what initiatives are business critical and which ones aren’t,” says Wright.
The bottom line, according to Wright: Choosing the right CSR initiatives is crucial in proving PR’s value to an organization. “We’ve moved from a philanthropic CSR model to a business-centric one, so make sure your initiatives tie into the business.”
CONTACT:
Trent Ross, [email protected], James Wright, [email protected]; Peter Lobred, [email protected].
10 Notable Companies on the 2010 CR Black List |
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Company Name |
Symbol |
3-year total return (%) |
Market Capitalization ($ billions) |
| Abercrombie & Fitch Co. | ANF | -19.04 | 4.2 |
| Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. | ARE | -10.01 | 3.06 |
| Bancorpsouth Inc. | BXS | -0.98 | 1.77 |
| CTC Media Inc. | CTCM | -14.7 | 2.7 |
| Fidelity National Financial Inc. | FNF | -11.93 | 3.41 |
| First American Corp. | FAF | -4.21 | 3.51 |
| RPM International Inc. | RPM | 2.69 | 2.83 |
| Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. | SNI | -- | 7.36 |
| Weight Watchers International Inc. | WTW | -15.89 | 3.98 |
| White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. | WTM | -15.82 | 3.17 |
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Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s first-ever Black List highlights companies that have failed to make public any of the CSR data points used to formulate the magazine’s annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list. The list above shows 10 of 30 companies deemed the least transparent when it comes to CSR. A comparison of three-year returns on shareholder value between 2010 “100 Best” companies and the Black List reveals that the average return for the bottom 30 is -7.378%—compared with a +2.374% return for the 100 at the top. |
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