Dismissed by some as “just philanthropy”, corporate community contributions are in our view an essential component of any effective programme of engagement by a company on issues of concern to society. It’s a bit like cement, binding together the building blocks of activity with employees, customers, governments and communities both geographic and of interests.
That said, community affairs managers are sometimes their own worst enemies, by letting themselves be judged on what they give, not what they achieve. The annual Guardian Giving List and the PerCent Club report is a case in point. (We’d better declare an interest at once, as our publisher also manages LBG on behalf of companies trying to apply business-like measures to the management and reporting of community involvement, focusing on objectives and results.)
So the launch of CommunityMark (see below) is a welcome move away from ‘per-cent’ thinking to a more rounded assessment, including integration with business strategy and engagement with stakeholders.
Hopefully it will cause a shift from simplistic rankings featured in the media to a ratings-based approach too. Another welcome development is publication of a study on impact measurement More than Making Money which puts community projects into the context of the wider contribution to society, through products and services and responsible business management.
Meanwhile, if anyone doubted the business case for charitable activity, look at the results being achieved by Royal Mail, reported below – a huge people-based operation with very real commercial and competitive challenges, using good old fashioned payroll giving and achieving stunning take-up levels.
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What gives?
J Sainsbury topped The Guardian’s FTSE 100 Giving List, spending £18.7m, or 7.02% of its pre-tax profit, on voluntary community activities in 2005. ITV and Northern Rock closely followed the UK’s second largest supermarket group, at 6.2% and 5.02% respectively. Overall, the 100 top companies set aside 0.79% of their pre-tax profits to finance their environmental and social projects, down from last year when they pledged 0.87%. However, the pre-tax profits have increased and therefore the actual amount of money contributed to the community has risen 3.9% to £985.76m, and 59% since 2002 when the survey started. www.guardian.co.uk
Measure up
A new study will make it possible for companies to assess the difference they make to society. More Than Making Money: Measuring the difference your company makes to society, outlines how companies can measure their impact – from individual projects to company-wide effects. The handbook gives advice on best practice and includes a contribution ‘map’, a toolkit of practical measures, case studies and a guide to terminology. The aim of the study is to help managers make sense of the confusing measurement demands and in this way drive forward improvement and open up the debate around measurement. The Corporate Citizenship Company, Briefing’s publisher, and Business in the Community developed the study jointly. It was funded by BT, Diageo, the John Lewis Partnership, KPMG, npower, serco, RWE Group, Vodafone and Severn Trent. www.corporate-citizenship.co.uk; www.bitc.org.uk
Cheque is in the post
A quarter of Royal Mail’s employees give to charity through a payroll giving scheme, the largest number of people to take part in payroll giving in the UK over the past year. The number of employees to sign up to the scheme has increased by 700% since May 2005. Payroll giving programmes deduct money directly from salaries before tax and the funds are donated to a charitable organisation. This year the beneficiary of the Royal Mail scheme is Help the Hospices, which has been the group’s major supported charity since April 2005, receiving £170,000 from Royal Mail since then. Martin Blake, head of social responsibility at Royal Mail, believes that being able to engage with Help the Hospices at a local and national level encourages employees to sign up. www.royalmailgroup.com; www.helpthehospices.org.uk
CommunityMark
Companies will now be recognised for their work in the community with a special mark – CommunityMark. Launched by the Prince of Wales on October 24, the mark will set a new standard for corporate community investment that covers how a company invests, the difference it makes and its value. The mark will enable consumers and businesses to differentiate between companies that do and don’t do community investment well. CommunityMark has been developed by Business in the Community in partnership with the private, voluntary and public sector. It was launched at the Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Corporate Responsibility Summit in London. www.bitc.org.uk
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