Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) describes the business practices that are carried out by companies to create social and environmental impact. CSR is different from general donation or volunteer programs in such that CSR activities are related to the company’s core business and can also contribute to its profitability. It involves the company taking responsibility for their impact on the society through sustainable and ethical practices. The key to successful CSR partnerships is being able to find alignment between your organization’s mission with the company's CSR goals, creating a win-win situation where both partners achieve their objectives. In most cases, CSR activities are voluntary although in certain jurisdictions like India, Mauritius, Nepal, Indonesia have laws that mandate a CSR programs and actions in companies of a certain size or in specific sectors.
When Should Your Organization Consider This Model?
Culture for Corporate Social Responsibility: CSR practices and programs are common among companies in your community, region, or country.
Capacity to Develop Long-term Relationships: Your organization has the necessary resources and capacity at the leadership team level to engage in building relationships over time.
Strong Storytelling: Your organization has a strong ability to communicate your mission and impact. You can craft compelling stories and pitches for projects and funding.
What Are Six Steps You Can Take to Establish This Model?
Find Aligned Companies: Identify companies with CSR goals aligned with your mission. Some ways to include:
Industry reports that cover CSR activity in your region and sector.
Networking and industry events related to CSR or specific to the sectors your organization works in.
Online business directories and reports. For example, CSR Hub includes a worldwide list (filtrable based on countries) of over 38,000 companies engaged in CSR.
In many countries, intermediary organizations (consulting firms, research firms, marketing firms, etc.) support large companies with administering their CSR work. In those cases, it can be helpful for your organization to engage with these intermediaries and discuss how your organization can connect with the companies they support.
Reach within your current network to identify individuals that have connections to higher level staff at companies or within their CSR departments to get an introduction for an initial meeting.
Positioning your Organization’s CSR Strategy: Before approaching companies with a project proposal, strategize about how you will position your organization’s work based on the insights you have gained in the first step. Think about:
Which sectors or thematic areas have the highest CSR activity? How does your organization’s work align with those areas?
If there isn’t a direct alignment, then how can your organization identify an adjacency alignment? For example, companies might not be supporting HIV/AIDS response through their CSR program, but are focused on areas related to general health, livelihood, community well-being, some of which might align with your organization’s programs.
What companies will you target? This could be based on the companies’ sector and focus, their past CSR activity, or warm connection within your existing network.
Understand the Company Goals for CSR: Before crafting the proposal, it is important to identify the company’s desires and goals when it comes to CSR. This will help you develop a proposal that is tailored to their context. You can do this by going through their website and especially by looking at the past projects that they have supporting. Understanding these goals can also help inform the way you should propose and pitch your ask to the company (e.g., a large technological hardware company decides to support CSR projects that are aligned with their work on digital and internet access. As a result, they want to work with civil society organizations (CSO) that are adopting technology to broaden the geographic reach of their impactful programs regardless of the sector they might by operating within).
Craft a Compelling Partnership Proposal: Each CSR proposal must be crafted for the specific company and opportunity. Different CSR programs might also have varying compliance requirements and due diligence processes. This information is generally available on their website, in an RFP (request for proposal), or is something that you can ask during an introductory meeting. This information can help you with putting the right information into your proposal and pitch. While creating your proposal, keep the following things in mind:
Highlight the alignment between your mission and the company’s CSR goals.
Describe your solution/program intervention and show exactly how it connects with the company’s CSR goals and any other high-level development goals like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Clearly articulate the impact of the partnership on your beneficiaries and how the company will benefit (e.g., brand visibility, employee engagement, purposeful storytelling).
Demonstrate the competence of your organization to implement the proposed project. This could include background of your team, board and advisory circle, major partnerships, specific methodology/approach, or other assets of your organization.
Include a detailed budget, timeline, and proposed roles and responsibilities.
Pitch: The next step is to pitch your proposal to the company. This can happen in two ways or a combination of both:
Respond to the RFP posted on the company’s CSR page.
Organize a meeting with the CSR manager and team of the company and pitch your project to them before submitting a detailed proposal.
Once you have submitted your proposal/pitch provide regular (monthly) updates to the CSR team sharing your organization’s work and stories about your impact.
Formalize the Partnership: If the company decides to partner with your organization, the next step will be to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or another type of written agreement and create a communication plan around the project’s progress and ongoing impact reporting.
Additional Resources on CSR
Due Diligence of NGOs – Guidelines, Tata Sustainability Group – An example of what a company’s due diligence process might look like. Access it here.
The SDG Partnership Guidebook, The Partnering Initiative – The Guidebook sets out the key Building Blocks of successful partnerships. Access it here.
How NGOs can write and Submit Proposals for CSR Funding? An exhaustive resource guide on writing CSR proposals. Access it here.
These 9 Statements can help Determine the Mutual Value of Your ESG [CSR] Partnerships, Global Giving. Access it here.
How to Find the Right Corporate Partner for your Nonprofit, Global Giving. Access it here.
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