Will Day: a new era of business-charity relationships?

CARE International UK has recently adopted a revised mission statement. Alongside our relief and development programmes, we are now considering ways of influencing policy at all levels to meet the challenge of global poverty. Involvement with companies beyond fundraising has in the past felt like a luxury we could not afford and were not structured to implement. We now feel that the impact of company activities in the countries where we operate is important enough to justify both time and resources.

Let’s say your company is planning a substantial investment overseas – perhaps you’re a utility, an engineering company, a bank: I’d like to encourage you to think as early as possible about how to make the social impact of your investment an integral part of the project, and to consider identifying partnerships with local or international NGOs to help you do this.

Organise a brainstorm, with no commitments on either side, with an organisation that has solid field experience in that country.

Go to that brainstorm with trust! It’s said so often I know, but I still visit companies where I can almost see the receptionist hitting an alarm to warn everyone there’s a charity in the building. We’re not all trying to go through your dustbins digging out the dirt! We recognise the complexities facing a company like BP operating in Angola, and feel that there is value in engaging in the debate with them about the profound long-term social impact of their commercial activities. It has helped enormously that BP recognises the reputational risk we are taking by working with it or any other major company. The impulse to partner usually starts with one or two individuals within each organisation. It takes time to win over the sceptics – and in our case that might include the charity’s finance director and many field staff.

Try to work out what your shared interests are – be prepared to talk about the fundamentals of what you do as a company. If you are installing water and drainage systems in a developing country, are you meeting the real needs of your poorest customers? Is clean water affordable and appropriate to their needs? How do you find that out? If you’re building a road, how can it serve as many people as possible along the way? If you’re selling insurance, how can you design a product for people who can only pay pennies, not just pounds? How can you reward your staff locally so that they think this way, as well as about return on investment?

Remember that charities want to change the world – we’re not modest about that! We do not exist to build your shareholder value or strengthen your brands or even promote your role in development – but we do want to see thoughtful companies succeed, and thoughtless ones see the value of change. I believe we have a real opportunity to move to a new level of business-charity relationships – the risk is we all hold back because we are not set up to work that way.

Will Day became CARE International’s UK director in 1996. His career in international relief and development began in 1983, working for Save the Children in Africa. Whilst recovering from a major car accident in Sudan, Day worked as a presenter for the BBC World Service for Africa. He joined Oxfam as relief co-ordinator in Ethiopia and then went to Comic Relief as its first Grants Director for Africa in 1988. Prior to joining CARE International UK, Will Day was the first Director of Opportunity Trust, a micro-enterprise NGO.

Day recently returned from a 10-day strategic management course at the Harvard Business School, which involved 140 chief executives from across the globe. Day’s attendance was funded by a Millennium Scholarship from Schroder Investment Management Limited.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 54 – October, 2000

Will Day became CARE International’s UK director in 1996. His career in international relief and development began in 1983, working for Save the Children in Africa. Whilst recovering from a major car accident in Sudan, Day worked as a presenter for the BBC World Service for Africa. He joined Oxfam as relief co-ordinator in Ethiopia and then went to Comic Relief as its first Grants Director for Africa in 1988. Prior to joining CARE International UK, Will Day was the first Director of Opportunity Trust, a micro-enterprise NGO.

Day recently returned from a 10-day strategic management course at the Harvard Business School, which involved 140 chief executives from across the globe. Day’s attendance was funded by a Millennium Scholarship from Schroder Investment Management Limited.