Twenty-five best practices for doing the most good for the company and the cause Lecture # 9.

Twenty-five best practices for doing the most good for the

company and the causeLecture # 9

How do the six initiatives help a cause?

• Enhance public awareness and concern for the cause through support of promotional communication efforts.

• support fund raising by encouraging customers and others in the community to contribute to causes

• increase community participation in cause related activities by providing promotional support and use of distribution channels.

• support efforts to influence individual behavior change and industry business practices that improve public health and safety and protect the environment.

Safe Kids Walk This Way programming includes annual events as well as year-round initiatives. With programs in seven countries -- U.S, China, Brazil, India, Canada, South Korea, and the Philippines - each year tens of thousands of children, teachers and parents join FedEx volunteers in celebrating International Walk to School Day activities. These local celebrations include mass walks to school, educational programs and opportunities for community leaders to shine a light on a particular pedestrian safety issue in their communities. Important local issues highlighted have included unsafe intersections, schools that lack crossing guards, and streets where there are no safe sidewalks.

Safe Kids Walk This Way program

“to teach safe behaviours to motorists and child pedestrians and create safer, more walk able communities”

• Provide increased funds and other resources that help charities and cause efforts make ends meet and/or expand efforts.

• The General Mills Foundation, in partnership with the American Dietetic Association Foundation and the President's Council on Physical Fitness, developed the Champions for Healthy Kids grant program in 2002. Each year, the General Mills Foundation awards 50 grants of $10,000 each to community-based groups that develop creative ways to help youth adopt a balanced diet and physically active lifestyle.

• increase the number of volunteers donating their expertise, ideas, and physical labor to a cause by promoting volunteerism in the community and supporting employee efforts

• Shell is one of the largest worldwide participants in The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup. Working in conjunction with The Texas General Land Office's Adopt-a-Beach program, The Ocean Conservancy's objective is to remove trash from beaches while also collecting valuable information on the amount and type of debris.

How do the six initiatives help the company?

• Build a strong corporate reputation as key constituents observe actions that support promises of good corporate citizenship and responsibility.

In response to rising obesity rates around the world, Kraft Foods Inc. initiated a new series of steps to further strengthen the alignment of its products and marketing practices with societal needs."The rise in obesity is a complex public health challenge of global proportions," said Betsy D. Holden, Co-CEO of Kraft Foods. "Just as obesity has many causes, it can be solved only if all sectors of society do their part to help. Kraft is committed to product choices and marketing practices that will help encourage healthy lifestyles and make it easier to eat and live better."

"What people eat is ultimately a matter of personal choice, but we can help make it an educated choice," said Roger K. Deromedi, Co-CEO of Kraft Foods. "And helping them get more active is every bit as important as helping them eat better. By providing people with products and information they can use to improve their eating and activity behaviours, we can do our part to help arrest the rise in obesity."

• Contribute to overall business goals by opening up new markets or providing opportunities to build long term relationships with distributors and suppliers.

• Attract and retain motivated employees by being known for involvement in the community and for providing employees an opportunity to become involved in something they care about and receive corporate support and recognition for doing so.

• Reduce operating costs by adopting new socially responsible business practices such as procedures that increase efficiency and reduce costs for materials.

• Reduce regulatory oversight by working closely with regulatory agencies to meet or exceed guidelines , there by increasing confidence and building strong relationships for the future.

• Support marketing objectives by building traffic , enhancing brand positioning, creating product differentiation, reaching niche markets, attracting new customers and increasing sales, especially when products and services are an integral part of program efforts.

• Build strong community relationships with organizations and agencies that can provide technical expertise, extend campaign reach by providing access to members and donors also supporting the cause; and offer credible endorsement for the corporation’s efforts and commitment.

• Leverage current corporate social initiative efforts and investments by including additional ones that further connect the company to the cause, thus increasing chances for both an impact on the social problem and a greater return on current investments.

Best practices for a choosing a cause

1. Choose only a few issues to support2. Choose issues that are of concern in the

communities where you do business3. Choose causes that have synergy with

mission, values, products and services4. Choose causes that have potential to

support goals: marketing, supplier relations, increased productivity, cost reductions.

5. Choose issues that are of concern to key constituent groups: employees, target markets, customers, investors and corporate leaders.

6. Choose causes that can be supported over a long term.

Choose only a few issues to support

• The company can actually have an impact on a particular social initiative as resources are focused and multiple initiatives aimed at one cause.

• It makes it easier to “say no” to others as the company can point their priority areas for giving.

Choose only a few issues to support

• It increases chances that the company will develop long term coveted relationships with strong desirable partners.

• Targeting resources in a few areas increases chances that the corporation will be connected to the cause and will therefore leverage potential brand positioning and other desired marketing benefits.

Choose issues that are of concern in the communities where you do

business

• This increases the chances that efforts will be noticed and valued among key publics

• It adds credibility and believability to standard statements in annual reports and sales catalogues proclaiming “ We believe in giving back to the communities where we do business.”

• It may also help solve real problems facing a business such as ensuring a future trained workforce or quality suppliers.

Choose causes that have synergy with mission, values, products and

services

• When corporations contribute to causes that are more in line with their mission, values , products and services consumers are less suspicious.

• Investors re less likely to judge the effort as peripheral, and employees are more likely to have the needed expertise and passion to volunteer.

Choose causes that have potential to support goals: marketing, supplier relations,

increased productivity, cost reductions.

“ It is only where corporate expenditures produce simultaneous

social and economic gains that corporate philanthropy and

shareholder interest converge…it is here that philanthropy is truly

strategic”

Choose issues that are of concern to key constituent groups: employees, target markets,

customers, investors and corporate leaders

• Support for social initiatives will be leveraged when the cause is also one near and dear to the key publics , both internal and external of an organization. Parents concerned with SIDS were most likely grateful for the just-in-time reminder from Pampers to place an infant on its “Back to Sleep”.

Choose causes that can be supported over a long term

• Achieving maximum benefits for the company and the cause often depends on long term commitments , frequently considered three or more years.

• Long term commitment can be more economical as early years in program efforts are often consumed with steep learning curves and coordination with final partners and efforts get more efficient in subsequent years

• Those companies that stick with a cause over the years are more like to be able to own it.

Best practices for choosing a CSR initiative

1. Select initiatives that best meet business objectives and goals.

2. Select initiatives that meet priority needs for the cause

3. Select multiple initiatives for a single cause, adding ones missing for current cause efforts.

4. Select initiatives representing g the most potential for strong community partners.

5. Select initiatives where you have a history of experience.

6. Select initiatives that will leverage current abundant resources.

Select initiatives that best meet business objectives and goals

• Managers should identify priority needs that might be met through supporting cause efforts, considering financial , marketing, corporate reputation, operational and employee related goals

• Premera Blue cross’s interest in reducing cost associated with others to support a cause promotion initiative that would increase public awareness and concern about the overuse of antibiotics and CSM initiative to encourage physicians to practice more conservative measure when prescribing antibiotics.

Select initiatives that meet priority needs for the cause

• Question the requirement; what is it that really needs to be done? Will the problem go away if we issue a grant? Will things absolve if we increase awareness and concern? Will we we able to alleviate this problem if we rum a social marketing initiative? Based on how you answer these questions choose your initiative because a good match ensure required results.

Select multiple initiatives for a single cause, adding ones missing

for current cause efforts• Integrated CSR initiatives: when a

company engages in a variety of initiatives to support a chosen social issue, it increases the likelihood that the company will be able clearly associated with the cause and at the same time will be able to provide more support fro the cause than it might through one initiative.

Select initiatives representing g the most potential fro strong community

partners

• Companies should also evaluate potential initiatives relative to their ability to create relationships with partners in the nonprofit as well as public sector, ones that will add resources as well as credibility to the initiative.

Select initiatives where you have a history of experience

• One consideration when choosing among potential new initiatives is the company’s track record and experience in developing and managing prior initiatives, providing an opportunity to capitalize on lessons learned and to be up and running with greater efficiencies.

Select initiatives that will leverage current abundant resources

• Resources to support cause promotions may simply require additional messages on existing communications

• CRM efforts can often piggy back on current paid products advertising

• CSM can benefit from existing distribution channels and product labeling

• Philanthropic initiatives can include donation of exiting resources

• CV efforts can be tied to exiting research and development activities

• SRBP can be incorporated with designing new facilities and revamping current operational procedures.

Best practices for developing social initiative programs

1. Form internal, cross functional teams to develop plans.

2. Include community partners in plan development3. Establish clear objectives and measurable goals

for the company4. Establish clear objectives and measurable goals

for the cause5. Develop a communications plan6. Identify and plan for additional strategic

elements7. Get senior management buy-in

Form internal, cross functional teams to develop plans

• Program plans often have impact and are most efficiently administered when developed by teams with representatives from various departments within the company

• This is very important at the beginning of campaign planning.

Include community partners in plan development

• Partners should be included in establishing goals and objectives, laying the foundation for strategic solutions and aligning expectations regarding outcomes.

• They should be included in developing strategic communication plans to help avoid costly and time consuming reworks of promotional materials.

• Including them in implementation plans will help avoid misunderstandings and confusion regarding roles and responsibilities.

Establish clear objectives and measurable goals for the company

& the cause

• What do you want for the company and what do you want for the cause, it is very important that this is specified and is out clearly with all associated with the cause. Goals for company or cause (I.e. outcomes) should be ideally measurable, specific, realistic, and time oriented.

Develop a communications plan

• Communication plans should identify traditional strategic components including communication objectives, key messages, and key media channels fro each of the targeted audiences.

• Communication objectives should signal desired audience outcomes i.e increases in awareness, concern, participation, and/or individual behavior change.

Identify and plan for additional strategic elements

• Cause promotions often rely on employee involvement benefiting from a coordinated effort.

• CRM involve decisions regarding product ties, timelines and more complex agreements with cause partners

• CSM often involve support for public engagement.

• Philanthropic planning efforts will involve deliberation over specific forms of giving and then development of programs for implementation.

• CV also entails selecting types of employee support.

• SRBP can require plans for significant changes as they may involve new work processes, negotiation with suppliers and decision on facility design and locations.

Get Senior Management Buy-In

The challenge is in getting approval for what will be supported and for

how much.

Best practices for evaluating efforts

1. Determine the purpose of evaluation2. Measure and report resource outputs3. Measure and report outcomes for the company,

based on initiative objectives and goals4. Measure and report outcomes for the cause,

based on initiative objectives and goals5. Monitor status of social issues that initiatives are

supporting.6. Allocate adequate resources for measurement

and reporting.

Determine the purpose of evaluation

• What will the information be used for? To find out how well we’ve done, to find out if we need to do more?

Measure and report resource outputs

• The focus at this point is on resources that the corporation contributes to the initiative and the total monetary value of these resources

• The information gathered here will not be used to measure the impact of these investments . It is to establish a total monetary value for the investment which will then be use as a base to evaluate the efficiencies and actual costs associated with outcomes as a result of these output levels.

Measure and report outcomes for the company, based on initiative

objectives and goals

• Focus now turns to measuring outcomes associated with corporate outputs, with an emphasis on measurement of accomplishments relative to corporate objectives and goals established in the early planning stages.

Measure and report outcomes for the cause, based on initiative

objectives and goals

• What ever CSR initiative you may choose, when you choose it you have certain goals in mind that you want to accomplish through that initiative.

• Through this evaluation you are able to find out if you were successful in changing anything. This measurement effort should be conducted in coordination with cause partners.

Monitor status of social issues that initiatives are supporting

• Since most initiative are long term practices, managers should keep an eye on the social problem to monitor changes and implications of these changes for future social investments.

Allocate adequate resources for measurement and reporting

• How much money is it going to take for the organization to evaluate efforts and report them to the respective departments.

• What is the budget?