Voices of Influence: Original and Guest Blog Posts from Around the World

These blogs provide insight into the latest issues, challenges, advances and debate around CSR and sustainability. Original and guest blog posts highlight differing perspectives and context.

CSR Blogs

Sustainability Reporting 101 - Part 8: The Pros and Cons of Five Sustainability Report Formats

What format will your corporate sustainability report (CSR) take? Determining how to present the final product is one of the key decisions to make as you develop the strategy and project plan for a CSR. The format not only has budget and timeline implications, but it also impacts the way your report is organized and written. For example, writing for the web requires a very different approach than a long-form printed copy.

Fundraising Lessons From BRAC's $500 Million Clinton Global Initiative Commitments

Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) launched its 8th annual meeting today. Make no mistake about it, this is a deal-making event. The price of admission for global nonprofits, foundations, philanthropists, and corporations is making a clear and measurable commitment to action. For companies and foundations, the commitment must include a significant financial pledge. And if you don’t fulfill your promise, you’re not invited back.

LinkedIn Board Connect: 10 Things Board Candidates Need To Know

Helping nonprofit boards and qualified board candidates to find each other is vitally important, a cause to which I have been devoted for nearly two decades. Nothing powers a board better than talented people who are stirred by the mission, and reaching beyond the narrow circles of the "usual suspects" enriches the nonprofit strategically, culturally and financially.

Sustainability Reporting 101 - Part 7: Top Ten Sustainability Acronyms and Why They Matter

Several years ago, I got a new assignment at work and suddenly found myself immersed in sustainability reporting. As I set out to learn my new job, I discovered an alphabet soup of acronyms that made my head spin on a daily basis. I tried to make sense of what the experts were saying, but thelanguage seemed to barely resemble English. So, one of my first orders of business was to learn the key acronyms of this new discipline. It was clear to me that if I didn’t understand these, I would continue to be lost and confused a good bit of the time.

Sustainability Reporting 101 - Part 6: Five Not-So-Obvious Ways External Experts Can Improve Your Sustainability Report

Producing a Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR) is a big job that requires significant time andexpertise. It’s easy to underestimate the full scope of resources that reporting requires. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of consultants and agencies available that can help handle many parts of the workload – from strategy, to writing, to data management, to graphic design, as well as agencies that can do it all. Typically, reporting teams only consider hiring a consultant or agency in order to fill obvious gaps in internal resources orexpertise.

A Postscript To The Conventions: Nonprofits Are Part Of The Solution

 

President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney each addressed the nation’s major challenges in their recent convention speeches. With different perspectives and emphases, the candidates spoke to some or all of these issues: job creation and economic recovery, deficit reduction, education, healthcare, alternative energy development, and the elimination of poverty. In addition to the solutions offered by the candidates, the “third sector”--nonprofit organizations--can be a vital partner to the government and business sectors in achieving success.

The Time is Right Now

Conclusion of the series "The New PR"

Many including this author, believe that forward-thinking companies will integrate sustainability goals into their business models and will use their visions of sustainability to help define revenue-generating strategies. Certainly the recent implosion of financial markets around the world offers a clear and disturbing picture of what happens when people lose faith in the long-term viability of businesses and business models.

The Role of the Nonprofit Board: Four Essential Factors for Effective Governance

 

Sophisticated and experienced NGO/nonprofit board members and CEOs routinely ask me to explain the role of the board. It's not surprising and I'm glad they do. So let me share my four essentials for effective governance.

1. Achievement: The role of the board is to achieve the organization's greater potential as well as its mission.

Sustainability Reporting 101 - Part 5: Five Ways to Build Your Sustainability Report Team

In order to build a good corporate sustainability report (CSR), it is important to have a solid team in place. The steps to recruit and motivate that team, however, are not unique to sustainability. Solid project management, expert networking and persuasive leadership are among the key business skills needed to guide your team in delivering a world-class report.

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