What does corporate citizenship mean to you? Does it mean having an employee volunteer day every now and then? Donating a portion of profits to a designated charity? Or do you hold a much broader definition of what it means to be a good corporate citizen?
In today’s world, it is no longer enough for companies to pay lip service to the community through half-hearted efforts to become involved. Consumers, and your employees, want to know that you are dedicated to making the community that you serve better, whether that community is large or small.
The goal of any corporate citizenship effort should be to create a long-term, ongoing relationship with a cause in your community. The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship lays out four principles of what they believe is the essence of corporate citizenship. They say corporate citizenship efforts should:
• Minimize harm the harm of your business activities on stakeholders, including employees, customers, communities, ecosystems, shareholders, and suppliers
• Maximize benefit by contributing to societal and economic well-being by investing resources in activities that benefit the community you serve
• Be accountable and responsive to key stakeholders by building trusting relationships with your primary audiences and being transparent and open to them about your business activities
• Support strong financial results because you have an obligation to yourself to run a successful business as well as serving your community
Peter Sands, group chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank, also has some that he uses to judge with which corporate citizenship efforts to become involved. He says that the task you choose to take on should be “relevant to the markets a company operates in; leverage a company’s competencies and infrastructure; have the potential to extend existing business lines or become a new business; and offer an opportunity to make a distinctive impact.”
My favorite corporate citizenship effort is the (PRODUCT)RED campaign that was started by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006. The goal of this campaign is to fight AIDS in Africa by donating money to The Global Fund which, in turn, invests the money in African AIDS programs directed at women and children. This campaign does not ask its corporate partners to donate a set amount of money to PRODUCT(RED) which then passes the money onto The Global Fund. Instead, PRODUCT(RED) asks their corporate partners to create special products that bear either the color red or the (RED) logo and donate up to 50% of the profits from the sale of those items. Current PRODUCT(RED) partners include Gap, Motorola, Emporio Armani, Dell, Microsoft, Apple, and Hallmark.
PRODUCT(RED) does not take a cut of the money and has, to date, donated $60 million to The Global Fund. This effort is different than traditional corporate citizenship efforts because it asks companies to build charity into their profit stream, rather than asking them to take money out to donate to charity.
Corporate citizenship is incredibly important to our company philosophy. We have worked with a variety of local charitable organizations to help them create new and engaging corporate identities. Most recently, we worked with the Me Fine Foundation creating a new corporate identity package to coordinate with their newly designed website. We have also worked to help them build additional relationships within the community, increasing awareness of their cause. We are now working with the Achievement Academy of Durham to redesign their corporate identity and provide marketing support to help them build brand awareness in the community to secure donations from local corporations.
Whatever cause you choose to pursue, make sure you choose something about which you are passionate and that is a good fit for your business. Don’t try to be something you’re not or try to overextend your resources by tackling projects that don’t fit with your business model. By taking on corporate citizenship efforts that fit with how you see yourself as a company, not only are you giving back, you help to strengthen your brand identity in the community you serve.
