CSR

“Social” may be the defining term of our generation. Which is curious, since many serious thinkers suggest that the illusions of social media have actually made us more isolated– alone on our devices, leading a digital life. I think the jury is out, though my suspicion is that the impact of social media is to exacerbate/enhance personality traits and practices that are already there. So loners find more to do in their loneliness, and the extroverted make yet more friends and find yet more reinforcement from them.

Last Research Wednesday I wrote about BCLC’s ongoing work to study the sustainability reports of 45 companies. I’m happy to announce that analysis is now complete. To hear our full results, you’ll have to be a BCLC member attending our April Bricks and Sticks Conference.

The old saying that the cobbler should stick to his last – his mold – suggests that we ought not venture far from things we work with day by day. That may have been true at one point, but it is no longer. And yet cobblers need to know their lasts, and take responsibility for them. Perhaps before they do anything else.

Followers of this blog realize the great importance of CSR work for tackling society’s challenges. But beyond this fundamental understanding there is a lot of ambiguity in the world of corporate responsibility.  In particular, there is a lack of understanding of basic facts. No one quite knows how many companies are tackling social and environmental issues, which issues they are tackling, and where they are tackling them. Take recent survey results as an example.

Has anyone else been puzzled by how much “corporations” are distrusted?  Between the tone of some campaign platforms and a recent Public Affairs Council poll showing 44% of Americans have little or no trust in major companies, this is becoming an increasingly important issue, particularly since corporate leaders consistently identify trustworthiness as a vital attribute of leading brands. Corporate responsibility officers have a critical role in bridging this divide. 

//Editor's Note: Care about this topic? Join us Oct. 10-12 at the Global Conference, CSR: Business Solutions for Emerging Markets. 

This article originally appeared on CIPE Development Blog. CIPE Executive Director John Sullivan will appear next month at BCLC's Global Conference, CSR: Business Solutions for Emerging Markets.

Recently, I heard a panelist at a social innovation summit refer to corporate philanthropy as "left over money" and corporate volunteerism as "left over time." Ouch.

This certainly isn't the way that corporate philanthropy began. In fact, many of the U.S. companies that have been around for a century or longer were founded by individuals who held strong social values and philanthropic impulses, and they brought these attributes to the companies they founded.