CSR initiatives for the autumn

October 06, 2006

With autumn upon us we are into the season of launching new initiatives and refreshing existing ones. At KPMG we often aim to link these in with national days, which seem to be becoming as popular as colourful charity wrist bands. A new one which is approaching quickly, is National Giving Week, it is only a month away and provides a real opportunity to plug payroll giving and a whole host of other giving opportunities.

We all know that payroll giving is tax effective but it is very hard to put this across in simple terms that could be read on a one page email or on a poster in a staff canteen area. Websites are useful including of course the CAF website www.cafonline.org and also the Charities Trust www.charitiestrust.org. For both, the messaging is simple in plain English and your preference will really come down to the corporate culture. If you want to be reasonably ambitious then 10% of staff in payroll giving is a good target and for the really competitive amongst us 20% is the sort of stretch target to aim for. The statistics around how few companies offer payroll giving and indeed how few employees take up the offer, shows that there is a lot of ‘low hanging fruit’ still to be had from this area.

An area where we haven’t yet managed to make an impact is on European Mobility Week which is also happening currently. Aside from the fact that the date of Car Free Day which falls during this week is always 22nd September, meaning that for two years out of seven it falls in the weekend, it hasn’t yet managed to attract the attention of the business world. However with all the focus on climate change at the moment it does provide a great hook for undertaking activities which demonstrate to people that it is possible to live, if only for one day, without the car.

We have decided to start build up our activities around this issue in time for World Environment Day next June. For us this means developing Environmental Volunteering to make the link between the resources we consume and resources available and then to bring that into daily work life. We will be considering the challenge of reducing carbon footprints and providing a whole range of tools and opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of the business. The current price of oil means that payback on schemes that were far too outlandish are now within striking distance. It is worth going back to some of the initial debates that were had three or four years ago around proven technologies and looking again at the economic business case.

Finally, given that the schools are back, volunteering in the education sector will be very busy until the end of its first term. As an added attraction this year we have again reintroduced a competition around a Seasons Greeting e-card which links in with our schools and makes a strong link between marketing and communications, CSR and our local communities.

Mike Kelly is CSR director at KPMG.

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