CSR Blogs

Old school charity and “philanthropy” once referred exclusively to financial contributions to nonprofits. Today, Omidyar Network (ON) takes a more innovative and inclusive approach, called “flexible capital.” As a philanthropic investor, ON invests in for-profits, as well as nonprofits.

Plenty of people use the power of the internet to trace and reconnect with old friends. Two brothers from Denmark, however, are working to harness that power for a greater social good. Christopher and David Mikkelsen founded Refugees United, an NGO that uses secure web and mobile technology to enable refugees to find loved ones throughout the world.

Some things are worth waiting for…                                                                                  

The Values & Business Roundtable  event held in New York last week with authors Mary Gentile, Rabbi Alan Lurie and Peter Ressler was one of them.

The big takeaway for me at the Mashable Social Good Summit at the 92nd St Y in NYC this week had less to do with the power of social media or technology to solve the world’s problems and more to do with a the reality of a human moment.

Yes, indeed, Solazyme is producing algae oils, a renewable energy source to fly you around the world, power your car, create products to reduce the wrinkles on your face, and fry the falafel at your local Halal truck. CEO and co-founder Jonathan S.

The latest Cone Cause Evolution Study reveals that moms are the demographic most open to cause marketing...they practically demand the opportunity to shop with a cause in mind.

According to the Cone survey, some 95% of moms find cause marketing acceptable, and 9 out of 10 want to buy a product that supports a cause. They are also more willing to switch brands (93% vs 80% average) in order to support a cause. All of this means that moms purchased more cause-related products in the past year than any other demographic (61% vs. 41%).

"Consider these numbers: $350 million in net operating savings over the projects' lifetimes. 400,000 metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions. More than 650 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year." -- Victoria Mills, EDF's Managing Director for Corporate Partnerships

Well, it’s that time of year again. What time you ask? The time to think of the living and the dead? No, not exactly. Rather the time to think of death as an end to an era and the rebirth of something wholly new. We reflect on how we have evolved these last nine years. As always September 11 is commemorated this week all over the city, the nation, and perhaps the world. The words “Never Forget” pop up on T-Shirts, buttons, and car bumpers. At Ground Zero, the thousands of names of those who perished in the tragedy are read. Trinity Church offers prayers for healing. At St.

Nine years ago, for most of America, our world changed.  Here in Annapolis, Maryland, a stone’s throw from Washington D.C., where many friends and neighbors work in the city and metro area, a common question is “Where were you on 9/11?”  By a strange twist of fate I was working in D.C., no more than 50 yards from the White House.  It was a horrible and frightening day that included a White House bomb squad lined up on Pennsylvania Avenue and half a dozen binoculars sweeping the sky.  As I was trying to get my head around what what going on and leave the area I asked a Secret Service agent w

While public opinion surrounding the virtues (or lack thereof according to the Wall Street Journal) of corporate social responsibility are wide and varied, the power of business in society is indisputable. Its a power that has at times carried a bad reputation - especially lately, when we've seen it used shamelessly to rake bags of cash into the arms of a few executives.

The way corporations sponsor causes is changing dramatically. Sponsors are moving from investing in “properties” that deliver quantifiable ROI in terms of impressions, interactions, and sales to developing proprietary social programs that deliver qualitative ROI such as employee and customer trust and engagement.

It is now exactly 7 days ago that a storm in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) world broke out over an article by Aneel Karnani published in the Wall Street Journal titled: ”The case against Corporate Social Responsibility”.

In the article he argued that the idea of companies having a duty to address social ills is not just flawed but that it also makes it more likely that we’ll ignore the real solutions to these problems.

Earlier this month, Proctor & Gamble announced plans to use renewable, sustainable, sugarcane-based plastic for packaging on its Pantene Pro-V, Covergirl and Max Factor brands.