What a Waste of Business Resource!
By Mike Tuffrey
Corporations spend billions every year on causes and in communities around the world. But a shocking new survey shows they actually know little about the difference it makes.
Nowadays everyone agrees that spending shareholder funds in scattergun philanthropy doesn’t make sense: it’s not good for people in need, nor for companies trying to justify and sustain a community investment (CCI) programme.
So Corporate Citizenship asked corporate responsibility and sustainability practitioners how they set objectives and whether they measure outcomes. Over 130 practitioners from around the world replied. A massive three quarters said they aspire to achieve long-term impact with their CCI. But fewer than half (44%) said they are actually measuring their impacts in the community. An even smaller proportion (28%) is trying to work out the benefits to the business.
Mike Tuffrey is co-founder of Corporate Citizenship, a global management consultancy specialising in responsible business and sustainability, and leads work on LBG.