Bridging the Corporate Social Responsibility/Nonprofit Chasm – A few truths you probably already know
There was a time when the rapid adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs signaled hope. When companies could take a look at the nonprofit ecosystem as a whole, identify the gaps in grantmaking, and take their proper place by filling in the holes left behind by traditional philanthropy. Maybe by adopting non-traditional methods of grantmaking like enterprise seed capital or endowment funding; giving non-program related grants (capacity building); and doing it in ways that alleviated the arduous application lifecycle by using trust based philanthropic practices. What could have been…
But the venture capitalists took over. They poured tens of millions of dollars (Benevity, Submittable) into a handful of CSR platforms that most companies use and that output the same product — a giving and matching program, nominal grantmaking, employee resource groups and volunteering efforts. Helpful? Sure. Impactful? Err…
There are countless stories of fruitful corporate/nonprofit partnerships in the naked city, but this is not one of them.
The Corporate Curveball
In the beginning, I was all about my company’s CSR efforts. Everything that was advertised on our intranet appealed to me, especially the employee resource and special interest groups.
I created a cross-ERG presentation on environmental racism, detailed questions for monthly lunch-and-learns and assisted on a monthly environmental justice speaker series; only to have someone say you’re really passionate…and then have all of my ideas summarily dismissed.
So I was naive. But, for a company that had annual profits of $8.5 billion, a corporate foundation with net assets near $4 billion and a CEO worth $30 billion, I thought there was more that could be done than Arbor Day giveaways for the environmental impact group and daily quotes from MLK during Black History month.
Like many companies, they’ve got too much money to be sitting around making symbolic gestures.
Corporate Social Responsibility is really a misnomer, with programs being employee-centric as opposed to nonprofit-centric. The ruse is this; at a time when employees are clamoring for something more, something real at their day jobs, what they hear from many of these groups is often the following:
• Establishing ourselves as a good corporate citizen so it advances our business objectives
• It’s important from a talent and brand perspective to be authentic (as opposed to it’s important for our partners that our actions are authentic)
And what they often experience may be this:
• Listening for 30 minutes to a local nonprofit during a lunch and learn and the only question someone asks is the infuriatingly innocuous but what can we do?
• Finding out the company went on a listening tour – to who-knows-what end
It’s disheartening because the mission statements behind these employee groups often say that they are interested in getting involved with systemic issues. Unfortunately, the reality just doesn’t reflect that. The truth is that there are many business drivers behind CSR initiatives that you just don’t see.
An Unprepared Advocate
Being such a vocal critic of conventional Corporate Social Responsibility, I was in the sudden position of being a staunch advocate for nonprofits; something I was not prepared for. It’s embarrassing how few nonprofit professionals I knew at the time. How could I develop a new model of corporate citizenship without intimate knowledge of the sector? There was a time when I attended every webinar I could find to learn from nonprofit professionals; but those will only get you so far. They aren’t intimate conversations…and that’s where the Hive community came in.
My weekly conversations are more than a collection of separate discussions, they inform my strategy. They stitch together a patchwork of the nonprofit sector that I never knew. Each conversation uncovers new ways for companies to support nonprofits; from having financial departments assist with annual audits, to purchasing expensive CRMs and licenses (and supporting teams with complicated data migrations).
You Have More Leverage Than You Know
Many corporations aren’t interested in true social impact. The value they get from a partnership with you (co-opting your message) is much more than you may receive in return via the promise of nominal donations and semi-regular skills-based volunteering events.
One real goal of corporate social impact is engaged employees. The volunteering experience can be so transformative that it boosts an employee’s productivity and increases their loyalty to the company. The caveat being that not all nonprofits need volunteers.
Many companies are using nonprofits and the truth is that for now, at least, you have the leverage to demand more. Companies can’t endeavor to do CSR on their own, nonprofits are the linchpin. You are the heart and soul of their initiatives. The storytelling they use you for is immensely beneficial in their messaging to consumers, investors and employees.
A little warning, though…some companies are turning away from nonprofits to deliver social impact (and engaged employees). Because of low participation rates in traditional volunteering activities, companies are now looking at other avenues to engage their employees, including broadening the definition of volunteering to include acts of kindness like helping your neighbor or going to a lunch and learn. They call it invisible participation, but I call it invisible impact.
They’ve succeeded only in decoupling the powerful psychological experience of volunteering from actually making any social impact. This completely removes nonprofits from the equation and may affect funding farther down the line.
CSR Practitioners
All this corporate social impact talk might be fine if companies didn’t claim they were serious about being agents of change, but they did. They convinced me and a bunch of people like me that they were serious. There’s so much passion from corporate social responsibility practitioners but so little budget. But I want you to know that there are people who are trying to get companies to use their institutional power to help you in more substantial ways. Unfortunately, many have been laid off and replaced with turnkey CSR platforms that need only a couple people to manage an entire company’s efforts.
There are social impact professionals in this space that you should be weary of as well. Those who, when asked why companies don’t act in ways that are commensurate with their power, call themselves pragmatists. As in businesse will only go so far to help and it’d be unreasonable to expect anything more. I want you to know these people are ok with the status quo and though their titles may have the words social impact in them, they are not about that life.
Even others who, when questioned why they’re not doing anything more such as giving larger grants or ongoing support throughout the year, etc…answer with the infuriating yes, and…as in, you’re right and this is just the beginning of our efforts. Of course.
To those people you should say the following: of all the problems you have in your life, with your spouse/partner, children, extended family, colleagues and friends — when is it ever acceptable to say “yes, and..” without hearing a mouthful in return or maybe expecting a slap.
Never. So it shouldn’t be acceptable to you either.
Final Thoughts
Don’t ever believe the lie that employees are the most valuable asset that a company has to give; they’re not. Their institutional power, including cash, their network, their PACs and the leverage they have with business associations they’re a part of are all infinitely more valuable.
In addition, there are plenty of frameworks that share detailed steps for how corporations can help their communities, from the United Nations Guidelines for Business and Human Rights to the Social Justice Guide from the nonprofit group the Business for Social Responsibility. If companies wanted to do more, there’s plenty of people showing them the way.
I’m not against CSR, I’m for corporate philanthropy. Companies have all the tax deductible reasons in the world to be very generous with you. I want them giving in ways that are commensurate with their power. Otherwise, it’s just the Commissioner sending the bat signal for Batman…and then Batman sending Robin. Sure, you’re doing something, just not all that you can do. And you can’t lay claim to being a socially impactful organization if you’re not doing your level best.
I’m grateful for the Hive community, the people that I’ve met and who have shared their knowledge with me. But I get more from it than I give in return and that makes me feel guilty. The best thing I can hope to return is better corporate support. That, and mentioning their names in every conversation I have with CSR folks.
Sometimes, I feel like corporate social responsibility is the missing piece to the Big O of the Hive. We may not be able to roll with it, but it can teach us to roll on our own.
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Matt works as an analyst in the social impact sector and regularly advocates for CSR reform. His focus is on developing a new standard of corporate citizenship where companies leverage their institutional power in support of their community partners.
Matt advises CSR professionals by providing research, analysis and insights that enable companies to reevaluate their approaches to community engagement. He posts regularly on LinkedIn and Substack.