Additionally, there's an economic incentive to invest in CSR. Business Professor Alex Edmans found that the 100 Best Companies To Work For in America beat their peers in stock returns by 2-3%. That’s nothing to sneeze at!

In this post, we'll show you how you can get started with CSR.

What (Exactly) Is Corporate Social Responsibility?

In 1970, well-renowned economist Milton Friedman said: "the social responsibility of business is to increase profits." 

While at some point in time, this statement was true, a lot has changed in the business environment and society expects more from businesses today. 

"Corporate Social Responsibility ensures that a company's economic growth is beneficial to all its stakeholders, including suppliers, employees, and customers, while minimizing its impact on the environment."

CSR is a significant undertaking, but it's essential to participate if a business is to thrive in the modern world. 

It's simple; If a company doesn't continue to offer high-quality products and services, customers will stop buying. If businesses don't treat their workers well, they'll leave. And if a company pollutes the environment, its public reputation will suffer. 

Conversely, if a company is socially responsible, they improve their reputation, attract the best talent, build customer loyalty, and turn a healthy profit. 

Sounds good, right? Well, implementing successful CSR initiatives is far from easy. It requires excellent planning, leadership, and an ability to communicate properly and effectively. Below we break down ten examples of Corporate Social Responsibility, both the good and the bad.

P.S. Here's a whole guide to introducing sustainability to your client's brand or PR agency.

The Successes

1. Once is Never Enough - Google

According to the journal Nature, data centers are estimated to use 200 terawatt hours each year, which represents approximately 1 percent of global electricity consumption.

Google has one of the largest data center networks on the planet, and they recognize the responsibility that comes with it. Here’s what they’ve implemented to combat this issue:

1. Designed servers from the ground up to last longer.
2. Recycle components from old servers into new ones.
3. Sell old servers on the secondary market.

As a result of these initiatives, Google has increased the number of remanufactured units and sold over 2 million machines each year to secondary markets.

Key takeaway: Set specific targets to measure your progress towards a circular economy within your organization.

2. Worker Well-being initiative - Levi Strauss & Co.

In 2011, fashion giant Levi Strauss & Co launched a game-changing initiative called Worker Well-Being (WWB) to create a more sustainable supply chain.

What’s unique about WWB is that it’s worker-driven. Levi Strauss takes the time to understand what is needed at a local level.

Levi’s has expanded WWB to 17 countries, impacting 190,000 workers, which represents 65 percent of the company’s production volume.

What’s remarkable is that WWB has yielded a 4:1 return on investment in some programs!

Key takeaway: Just like you need to have customer empathy to be successful, take the time to reverse engineer what your workers want and need. 

3. Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices - Starbucks

Starbucks developed the C.A.F.E practices program in partnership with Conservation International.

The goal of the program is to ensure that coffee, tea, cocoa, and other manufactured goods are sourced responsibly and ethically.

C.A.F.E has a set of standards suppliers must meet in different aspects of their operations, including:

• Waste created
• Water quality preservation
• Energy conservation
• Biodiversity preservation
• Humane working conditions

These standards are measured and monitored across all Starbucks suppliers, and now 99% of coffee beans are ethically sourced.

As of today, the C.A.F.E. Practices program includes over 400,000 farmers in 28 countries that are committed to ethical and sustainable practices.

Key takeaway: Use business reports to set standards with suppliers and hold them accountable. 

4. Hospitality For All - Hilton

Established in 1919, Cisco, Texas, Hilton knows a thing or two about building an impeccable reputation.

Hilton is ranked among the top companies to work for in the world, with 96% of employees saying Hilton is a great place to work.

Hilton’s secret sauce in their CSR initiatives lies in how they treat their employees. 

From top-down and bottom-up, Hilton embodies a simple yet powerful philosophy, Hospitality For All.

Hilton treats every employee with the same world-class service they provide to their customers.

Key takeaways: Have a clear set of company values and put a communication plan in place to hold the team accountable to these values.

5. Community Involvement Program - Xerox

In 1974, the printing giant Xerox created their Community Involvement Program. Employees were encouraged to take part in the development of local communities in the areas that they care about.

Since its inception, over half a million employees have participated in the Community Involvement Program. As a result, Xerox has been recognized as one of the most ethical companies in the world for over ten years. 

Key takeaway: Give employees some billable hours each year to take part in local community development. Get them to share the results amongst the rest of the organization to inspire more people to participate. 

The Failures

1. Clean Diesel - Volkswagen

For several years, Volkswagen claimed its diesel engines had fewer emissions than conventional petroleum. 

Volkswagen promoted the fact that its diesel vehicles reduced nitrogen oxide pollutants (NOx) by 90 percent.

But in 2015, the Federal Trade Commission made a complaint against Volkswagen as they found that these “clean cars” were emitting up to 4,000 percent more NOx than the legal limit.

Volkswagen installed software on over half a million vehicles that masked the actual output of NOx so they could pass the emission tests.

The manufacturer pleaded guilty and was penalized $1.45 billion, and their reputation took a huge hit.

Key takeaway: Be authentic and don’t claim to care about something you don’t care about.

2. The Best Man Can Be - Gillete

In 2019, Gillette released a short film highlighting the social justice issues of masculinity in the common era. 

While a fraction of viewers responded positively to the ad, it was highly criticized for using sensitive topics to gain media attention. 

The film highlighted examples of boys and men displaying negative behavior in society, using terms like “toxic masculinity.” 

Critics see this campaign as an attempt to use CSR to appeal to a “sensitive” millennial demographic. 

As it turns out, a shaving company trying to tell men how they should act didn’t go down too well. 

Key takeaway: Take great care when combining social justice issues with content marketing. Also leverage customer feedback to build personalized advertising campaigns.

3. Privacy - Facebook

Facebook connects billions of users around the world with its software. They collect copious amounts of data from their users, and with that comes a huge responsibility. 

In early 2018, a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, exposed the data from 87 million Facebook profiles without their knowledge. 

The scandal was well-publicized and Facebook has been working to mend its reputation ever since. 

With more people digitizing their lives, all companies are faced with the challenge of protecting their users’ privacy as part of the foundation of their corporate social responsibility. 

Key takeaway: Put every measure in place to avoid breaching the privacy of stakeholders. This means having an aligned vision across multiple departments in your organization. Think about using communication software in addition to face-to-face connections to create a culture of privacy among your team.

4. Fake Rides - Uber

It would be hard to discuss bad examples of CSR without mentioning Uber. Uber was one of the hottest startups in history, with its transformative ride-sharing service. But they’ve been involved with scandal after scandal, leading to their former CEO Travis Kalanick stepping down in 2017. 

In 2014, Uber was accused of hiring employees to order and cancel 5,560 rides from ride-sharing competitor Lyft. Uber later issued a statement suggesting they were unaware of such activity. 

However, given their track record, this activity further damaged their reputation and their CSR efforts. 

Key takeaway: Seek ways to learn from competitors instead of trying to bring them down. 

5. Account Fraud - Wells Fargo

In 2016, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that employees of Wells Fargo opened up 3.5 million unauthorized customer accounts.

Wells Fargo made a statement to suggest that employees were creating unauthorized deposit and credit accounts to meet unrealistic sales targets. 

To make matters worse, employees transferred money from authorized accounts to unauthorized accounts to rack up account fees.

The bank was slapped with a $2 billion fine, had to fire over 5,000 employees, and CEO John Stumpf was forced to retire.

Key takeaway: Avoid coercive tactics to motivate employees and inspire them to do their best work instead. Focus on ethical sales practices like customer relationship management, cold emailing and networking.

Conclusion

The race to a more socially responsible marketplace is well on its way, and while not every strategy is perfect, this post shows clear examples of what works and what doesn’t.

And the most exciting part is, this is only scratching the surface! So many companies are doing incredible things to create a socially responsible future.

Cover photo by Adam Jang on Unsplash

The post 10 Corporate Social Responsibility Examples You Should Know appeared first on Prowly.

It’s good to keep these things in perspective, to see what we’ve done, how we’ve grown, and what more we could do in the future to make our world, our company, and our community a better and healthier place.

The Weight of CSR

What we’re talking about here is CSR, our Corporate Social Responsibility, because as we grow our capacity to make a social impact grows along with us. We always come back to that word, Responsibility, and try to keep that in perspective. 

CSR has changed over the years, it has evolved. Once it was believed that a corporation’s only responsibility was to generate profit, but we’ve grown past that. 

Then CSR came to mean sustainability and reducing the negative impact of profit generation, but we can do better. Through our CSR initiatives, we have the power to make a real positive social impact. Through charity, supporting sustainability, and our work with NGOs, we can ensure that Prowly remains an ethical business.

Our world is rapidly changing, we can see it each and every day, and it is ever more important to always do what we can to protect our own ethical business practices and ensure our efforts continue to contribute to society. And, as always, this comes down to our people.

Why we care about CSR

CSR begins with people, with our company culture here at Prowly. What we promote here, what we believe in, defines our social impact on the outside. From our beginnings to now, we celebrate diversity and focus on inclusion. Our aim has been to build and promote a culture that is open, free, creative, bold, safe and easy-going for anyone and everyone. We prioritize honesty and kindness and always try to stay open-minded. Independence is both our challenge and our greatest strength.

We can see all of this as we look back on this past year and look at what we’ve accomplished together. Our values, our culture, drive our social impact. From this roadmap we can look towards the future and consider what more we could do and what we could do better.

Learn more about what it takes to manage CSR essentials in this article.

Our 2022 CSR initiatives in review

Prowly’s positive impact can come in big and small packages. So let's take a closer look at what CSR initiatives we’ve taken up in this past year. Knowing what we’ve done, we can get a better idea of where and how we can make a positive social impact in the future.

At Home

For a start, we’ve always liked to keep all of our merchandise eco-friendly, sustainable and cruelty free. We try to support small local businesses, keep our social impact close to home where we can see and feel the positive change. We also see the benefit of supporting NGOs with the technology and services they need to succeed in their work. We’ve long offered 50% off on all Prowly’s annual plans for NGOs.

Local Charities

These are a good start, but there is always more we can do. So let’s take a look at how we’ve given to charity. We are and hope to remain a technological partner of WOŚP, the biggest, non-governmental, non-profit, charity organization in Poland raising money for pediatrics and elderly care. And for a few years now, we have supported the initiative “Wigilia dla Seniorów” (Christmas Eve for Seniors), which includes a gift collection for seniors and an event that attempts to bring together Warsaw's elderly and other self-reliant residents who might otherwise spend Christmas alone.

Global Concerns

These initiatives have kept things close to home, but as we grow we can expand our global reach. The invasion of Ukraine has left many adrift and has created a great many unmet needs, so we made steps to help where we could. In that light, we cooperate with the global gifting platform, SnackMagic, and make a $5 donation for every redemption of our gift to this organization, supporting hospitals in Ukraine with critical supplies as the struggle continues.  

We managed to take this a step further and from February 24 we began providing all companies and NGOs helping Ukraine with free access to Prowly software. Up to this day, over 20 organizations have benefited from our support.

Help for Ukraine 

For the Refugees

Once again, we try to keep these efforts close to home, where we can see our social impact. And the war has brought many people in need to our very doorstep. So for three whole months our Warsaw office was converted into a temporary home for refugees. In cooperation with @Dom Ukrainski and @Fundacja Centrum, we helped nearly 30 people find permanent places and adjust to their new reality.

For the Children

This provided much needed inspiration, so we looked for more places we could help. And so Prowly sponsored 20 daycare slots in several nurseries in Warsaw to help enable Ukrainian women to get back on their feet. Thanks to the fact that the children can be looked after, their mothers are able to start working and make ends meet.

For People

We also found the time to help a talented artist from Bucha. Mrs. Natalia is a 72 year old member of the Ukrainian Union of Artists and Designers and a former teacher in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Kiev. She lost everything during the war. So Prowly got her new painting equipment, thanks to which she can support herself while pursuing her passion.

Inclusivity

This year, a new team was formed within the company — Prowly’s DEI team, inspired and created by our colleagues and devoted to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace. Our internal values reflect the impact we might make in the world around us. 

To support the LGBTQ+ community, Prowly made a donation to the Diversity Poland Foundation to help them start a project for suicidal prevention of LGBTQ+ teenagers. We hope that this is a start down a long road to inclusivity not only in our own business, but in the community we share. Promoting a culture that is open, free, and most of all safe for anyone and everyone.

These acts, big and small, remind us that we have the ability to make a real positive impact on people’s lives. They keep us human, focused on people. These initiatives help those in need to maintain or rebuild their independence and help keep us centered on our core values as an ethical business.

Learn how Prowly can help companies communicate their own CSR activities here.

Conclusion

As we can see from a close examination of what we’ve achieved, our works grow outwards from who we are as a company. What Prowly is and what Prowly continues to be as we grow, expand, and change has and will continue to define our acts of charity, our work with NGOs, our focus on sustainability. It has and will define the nature of our CSR initiatives and guide our social impact.

It is important to remember, as we look back on all we’ve done, that this is just a beginning. This past year has presented unique chances for us to experiment, to see just how far we might extend our reach, to see just how deep of a positive social impact we could make. Through these experiences we can chart a map for further improvements to come. There’s a long road ahead of us, our goal is always to grow, to change and to better meet our growing responsibility.

The post Prowly’s CSR Initiatives in 2022, a Retrospective appeared first on Prowly.

Which of these stories is about you?

No matter the situation, we’re about to answer your questions right away.

• What does Public Relations sustainability mean?
• PR sustainability vs ESG, CSR, and greenwashing
• Why does sustainability matter to PR agencies
• Reasons to introduce sustainability into your clients’ brands
• Get your clients noticed with compelling press releases

And when you're ready, create your sustainability story easier with Prowly's AI Press Release Creator and show it to the world.

What does Public Relations sustainability mean?

Public relations sustainability means using sustainability principles in PR communications strategies, be it an agency doing PR work for a client or a brand doing it for themselves.

It’s a broader set of strategies that allows brands to be recognized as sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially aware.

👉🏼 For example, if a company decides to stop using plastic straws in its chain of fast food restaurants, this could be a simple CSR campaign as well as a set of sustainable business practices. 

When you add public relations to the mix, this means creating press releases, social media campaigns, and a wide range of content formats to make sure that the chain of restaurants is perceived as eco-friendly by customers, investors, and the broader public.

And then, you can put all of your sustainability PR materials online in one place, to help journalists publish the story.

How does PR sustainability differ from ESG, CSR and greenwashing

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), and greenwashing are three common terms that are often confused in PR contexts.

Here's what they mean exactly and how you should use them:

PR sustainability vs. greenwashing

PR sustainability entails that a brand is actually doing something to become more sustainable.

For example, reducing their carbon footprint, recycling materials, saving on electrical energy, and others.

Greenwashing is when a company does not do any of these things but uses PR to show itself in a positive light. In other words, they may not actually be recycling materials but they will create PR campaigns to say that they do.

For a brand’s image, PR sustainability makes all the difference while greenwashing is a short-term publicity stunt that often does more harm than good. And it is a lie.

P.S. If your client or brand is all about true sustainability, you have to make the first move to let the world know about it. Craft a press release about it manually or with AI Press Release Creator. No matter the way - you can do it all in Prowly.

CSR vs. ESG activities

To help you prepare better sustainability PR campaigns for your brand or clients, let’s make another distinction between these important terms.

ESG focuses on the three main factors for measuring sustainability and the ethical impacts of how a business invests its money.

As such, it’s primarily important for investors and financial stakeholders.

CSR is broader and includes all the voluntary actions of a company when it comes to taking responsibility for their impact on society and the environment as a whole.

It goes beyond the legal obligations of a company as an entity. 

As such, CSR is important for the broader public as a framework for corporate responsibility. Here is a good example on how to communicate CSR initiatives to the public.

Why does sustainability matter to PR agencies?

As consumer preferences shift and change, PR agencies need to be aware of sustainability trends. Even more so, they should be educated on the topic and guide their clients on how to take a stand on PR topics and present themselves to the public.

Here is why sustainability is becoming an increasingly important topic for PR agencies and their clients.

1️⃣ Reputation management

PR agencies should set up transparent communication about the sustainability practices in their clients' companies so they can build trust and credibility with customers, partners, employees, the media and the broader public.

2️⃣ Consumer expectations

Today's consumers expect brands to care about sustainability and take a stance on important topics such as pollution prevention or water conservation. It is up to the PR agencies to help brands align with these customer expectations and inspire them to take on new sustainable activities.

3️⃣ Crisis management

When things go south, PR agencies should come up with sustainable PR campaigns to help their clients not only save face but show their commitment to sustainability as a company value.

4️⃣ Media relations

Media outlets pay attention to the attitude that brands have on sustainability and it's common for journalists to cover these stories in their day-to-day jobs. A PR company can help set up foundations and create sustainability PR campaigns.

5️⃣ Stakeholder engagement

Sustainability is not just about environmental practices, but encompasses a broader commitment to stakeholders, including employees, communities, and investors. PR agencies play a key role in facilitating transparent communication with these stakeholders

6️⃣ Differentiation and competitive advantage

If your client is in an industry where it is hard to stand out based on features, pricing, innovation or customer experience, sustainability may be the differentiating factor that helps them win new business.

7️⃣ Investor relations

Investors may be more likely to trust and spend money on companies that have long-term plans around sustainability. It is up to the sustainability PR agency to create this trust.

8️⃣ Employee relations

Sustainability public relations can help boost your client's employer brand and make them a more desirable employer in the eyes of candidates. In a competitive market, sustainability is important as a way to stand out and get the best candidates on the job market.

9️⃣ Regulatory compliance

Having policies on sustainability might be required by the law for clients working in certain fields or industries. Sustainability PR can be a great first step in that direction.

13 reasons to introduce sustainability into your clients’ brands

If you already manage a portfolio of clients, you may be wondering if it makes sense to pay attention to sustainable PR. It's important to bear in mind that sustainability is not just a moral or ethical imperative - despite studies showing that CSR initiatives are slowing down, it's become a necessity for modern businesses that want to thrive.

#1 Consumer expectations

Younger generations such as Gen Z expect brands to be dedicated to sustainability. In fact, research shows that 90% of Gen Z make changes to their daily lives to live in a more sustainable way.

#2 Competitive advantage

When your competitors have a better product, more affordable pricing, or better brand presence, sustainability PR campaigns can help you stand out so you can kill two birds with one stone.

#3 Regulatory compliance

There is a good chance that your clients' local, federal, or country laws have a word or two about sustainability for their industries. By investing in sustainability PR, you can help your clients stay compliant and avoid hefty fines.

#4 Risk mitigation

You lower the chance of your client receiving negative PR at some point in the future as you're helping them address those issues ahead of time.

#5 Employee engagement and talent attraction

People want to work for companies that share their values. Sustainability can be a huge asset for winning over great job applicants.

#6 Long-term viability

Sustainability PR helps your clients' brands in the long run, as opposed to short-lived PR campaigns around launches and similar events.

#7 Investor confidence

As investors know that your client is devoted to sustainability, they are more likely to spend more money with them.

#8 A long-term rise in recognition

Marketing and (most) PR campaigns are short-lived, while sustainability public relations campaigns make a long-lasting impact on your client's brand.

#9 Increased website traffic

Besides journalists, your potential customers will want to learn more about your clients' businesses. This means more traffic to your clients' websites and, potentially, more conversions.

#10 Brand loyalty

There are very few customers who will leave your clients behind because of their commitment to sustainability. There are, however, many more who will remain customers because they share common values with your clients.

#11 Heightened social interactions

Your clients can expect more engagement on social media thanks to their interest and dedication to sustainable PR.

#12 A larger share of voice

With sustainability public relations, your clients can stand out in competitive industries without spending tons of cash on expensive campaigns.

#13 Greater media coverage 

With a higher focus on sustainable PR, your clients are more likely to get picked up by news outlets, magazines, bloggers, and content creators.

To gain coverage you can use PR newswires, media pitching and...

Use your owned channels. Share the most important client PR materials in their own Online Newsrooms.

Get your clients noticed with compelling press releases

Are your clients are investing time and money in sustainability? It's hight time to show this to the world.

The first step is creating an amazing press release. With Prowly, you can create one in minutes.

You can go with one of three ways 👇🏼

Option A:

Write a press release from scratch, using intuitive blocks that suggest what you should write and format it automatically.

Option B:

Use one of the handy templates for various industries.

Option C:

Let AI help you create a press release draft. After that, you just need to tweak it, adjust it and make the final touches.

If you go for the third option (which can save you time and writer's block frustration) you don't need to write anything from scratch. Simply load up the AI Press Release Creator and answer the questions to generate your first draft full of detailed information. Wait just a moment and your press release is almost done!

And if you want to keep your clients' press releases, logos, fact sheets, and other information in one place, you can use Online Newsroom to communicate your CSR activities.

Wrapping up

Having said all of this, it is important to note that there is a significant drop in corporate social responsibility activities in different industries. As a global crisis is ongoing, many clients see CSR as something that is nice to have rather than a necessity.

However to be on top, it's better to oversee the changes and do things that can make you a leader in a long run. So don't neglect the CSR importance based just on 2024 trends.

Once you're done, it’s time to start creating and promoting your press releases to get your sustainability initiatives seen.

And with Prowly, you get all the tools to create amazing press releases, pitch them to journalists, and create amazing newsrooms for your clients or brand.

The post How to Introduce Public Relations Sustainability into Your Brand or PR Agency appeared first on Prowly.

Today, the value of being a good corporate citizen goes beyond the pride and satisfaction of providing simple altruistic support for worthy goals. Strong and consistent CSR policies have become a cornerstone of the identity of many brands with customer bases that strongly identify with causes championed by businesses, from ethical sourcing to contractor working conditions to carbon footprints and a thousand other issues in between. 

CSR isn’t just the right thing to do, increasingly it makes business sense as a way to deepen engagement with modern consumers. As a still relatively new component of corporate activities, CSR began 2020 with enormous potential to combine business and social goals into a symbiotic relationship, with each supporting the other and creating new opportunities for brands and the issues that matter most to their customers. 

And then COVID-19 happened. 

Uncharted territory for CSR

Even now, without a full accounting of its effects, the impact of the outbreak of the coronavirus cannot be overstated. Our lives, both personal and professional, have come to a standstill while authorities take on the challenge of stopping and then reversing the spread of the epidemic.

While previous challenges to effective CSR typically affected a certain brand or vertical, the current crisis is unlike anything we’ve seen before. There is literally no business, no sector and no economy beyond the reach of the devastating influence this epidemic. And while every business is faced with navigating the new economic landscape for its long-term survival, there are also short-term challenges and opportunities that can be addressed using the values of CSR. 

Those values have a place in this time of uncertainty and anxiety. One of the core components of CSR is about putting a human face on business entities by communicating empathy, understanding and support, both moral and financial, for those who need it most. We’re definitely in a time of need right now and transferring the ideals of CSR to the dislocation caused by COVID-19 can be of great benefit now for all of us, as employees, as consumers and most importantly, as people trying our best to get through an extremely challenging time. 

Obviously, we all hope for the fastest, safest resolution possible to our current problems and a return to our previous lives as soon as can reasonably be expected. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of the ways that pre-COVID-19 Corporate Social Responsibility strategies can be applied to the reality we’re going through right now.

Read also:

Examples of CSR during the coronavirus

Here are some points to consider as businesses try to deal with their own staff and their customer base, both of which are highly sensitive to even the smallest actions taken on behalf of a brand. The principles behind CSR can help to maintain social accountability to stakeholders and the broader community while ensuring the best possible business performance during this difficult time. 

Let’s start with employees inside an organization. CSR is too often framed as being for consumers only but good social responsibility starts at home. Here’s how:

Businesses should first focus on the people they depend on most, their employees. The absolute top priority should be ensuring employee comfort and safety. Nothing else even comes close at a time when a dangerous health threat covers the globe. No doubt you’ve seen the screens at store checkout counters and tape on the floor telling customers where to stand. This is, of course, the responsible thing to do for all of us under the circumstances but first and foremost it shows that employers are primarily concerned with creating a safe workspace with all the reasonable precautions that can be taken.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution (every role and workspace will have its own particular circumstances), give employees as much flexibility as possible to carry out their work tasks. For many, this has meant working remotely from home but not every job allows for such an arrangement. “Flexibility” here also extends to working hours as well. Child care and elder care has suddenly become a major issue for millions and forcing employees to choose between work and home responsibilities is not going to end well for anyone involved so focus on staff needs first.

It’s also important to be aware that employee well-being extends to mental health as well. We can’t deny that these are stressful times for any number of reasons associated with anxiety about the future and legitimate fears about the spread of the epidemic. The last thing employees need is additional job-related stress. Businesses need to acknowledge that different rules apply right now and part of that may necessarily involve a more relaxed approach to certain things that had no flexibility before. Be aware that staff are likely more concerned about their families than following certain workplace practices that may or may not be worth a confrontation if they are not followed as normal. There’s nothing wrong with erring on the side of preserving a more relaxed atmosphere for everyone at work. We all have enough stress already, right?

This is an extension of the previous point, but place a greater emphasis on listening to your staff. Just as listening to customer feedback is key under normal circumstances, keeping constant and open communication with employees is part of maintaining a relaxed atmosphere and a comfortable work space. Check in more often than you otherwise would and keep it conversational. Just knowing someone wants to know how they’re doing can keep staff engaged and feeling connected.

Remember that, going forward in a post-COVID world, you may be in a position to keep in place some practices that you were forced to adopt. You might accidentally find some new efficiencies and other temporary habits may prove to be especially popular among staff. Any opportunity to become more flexible and agile as an organization are worth a look and so keep an open mind when the time comes to switch back to “normal” mode.

Now let’s turn outward to consumers and customers. Managing a company’s reputation during any crisis is a delicate balancing act but the current threat presents especially tough challenges:

The public simply wants reassurance in any form. It could be reassurance that a brand or store they depend on is functioning normally or that a product they need is available. Brands should resist the temptation to constantly update customers through, for example, social media, adding to the general noise and anxiety. Keep it simple, keep it positive and keep it short.

By now, we’re all used to announcements of cancellations of every imaginable kind of event or gathering. Some of these decisions have been handled more gracefully than others and the ones that were done badly will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. The public is not forgiving of a reluctance to cancel events because of financial considerations, no matter how painful they may be to organizers. Cancellations should be made earlier than later and always explained in terms of a desire to keep participants safe and to avoid endangering anyone. No matter who the gathering was meant for, they will be happy to attend when you return next year. 

This should be an obvious point that applies to 99% of all brands but it bears repeating—this is not a time for self-promotion. Even the appearance of trying to take financial advantage of current circumstances is radioactive for any brand and is certainly not worth the (probably imaginary) potential benefits. Yes, Netflix and HBO GO can get away with a kind of real-time marketing to attract more subscribers but they’re the exception to the rule. UBER Eats is suddenly everywhere and we all know why but they’re meeting a genuine surge in demand and they’re not referencing the current context that’s driving it.

Outside of a handful of such examples, the vast majority of products and services has no relationship to the needs created by the coronavirus crisis and trying to somehow create one is risky, to say the least. The takeaway here is that there should be zero actual or implied links between any promotional materials and the health crisis we all face, which should only be treated as the deadly serious issue it is. One false step in this area is exactly what makes corporate “fails” go viral and the damage to a brand can be severe. Managing your social media page when there are a few attacks to deal with is hard enough—what would dealing with thousands be like?

Give when, where and how much you can. Isn’t it great to see so many contributions of every kind coming from so many brands? Not just contributions of cash, although of course, that’s always helpful, donations of goods, materials and volunteer time. Look around and it won’t be hard to see an organization in any community that will gratefully accept any help you can provide.

Keep your CSR communication in one place

Effective communication around CSR is conducted over the long term. After putting so much effort into writing about your company activities regarding corporate social responsibility why wouldn’t you take the extra step to keep information about your CSR activities in one place?

This is where an online newsroom comes in handy. You constantly update it with your company news and share news about the direction your brand is moving during the crisis.

One way of keeping all your company news in one place is by maintaining an online newsroom:

While CSR should never be about bragging and self-promotion, companies have a responsibility to communicate to their stakeholders what they are doing. Knowing how to effectively do so is a crucial part of a successful CSR strategy.

Continue to our next post to find out how Prowly can aid you in communicating your CSR activities.

The post Corporate Social Responsibility in the Age of Coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared first on Prowly.

You don't need to adopt an entire village or anything like that. Even small steps like sponsoring a local football team will do. Here are 15 businesses to inspire you to do so!

Tom De Spiegelaere, Director, Mango Matter Media

We were committed to giving back from the early days of our agency. While some people might go and volunteer somewhere, do it themselves, it's not really up our ally, or plays to our strengths as digital marketers. Instead, we're doing what we know best, and give a % back to a few charities each month.

Currently, those charities are a mix of local and global ones. Examples are:

Mater Hospital in Brisbane: They were established in 1911, and offer high-quality care for their patients, the donations also help with research.

The Nature Conservancy: As the name suggests, focuses on protecting/conserving nature. They also help with providing food and water sustainability and tackling climate change.

Oxfam: A household name, mainly focused on poverty and inequality.

Our donations grow as our profits grow, and are reviewed every year. We're also always on the lookout for new charities to add to the list, though we do review each addition quite carefully so we know our donations are put to work efficiently.

Kevin Hilton, Director, Multi-Layer Marketing

“I personally like to support many national causes, but as a business I think it’s incredibly important to support local causes in whatever way I can. Multi Layer Media regularly advertises in the magazine of a local hospital. The payments from advertisers go towards the upkeep and daily needs of the hospital. 

The hospital itself is very important to me and all staff at Multi Layer Media, as it is the local emergency care provider for us all. Various departments at the hospital have been threatened due to funding cuts, so supporting the hospital through advertisement is something I am proud to do.

We are also planning a fund raising event for a local charity where we will offer seminars for local business owners. As a company we want to be able to share our knowledge of successful marketing tactics with local business owners, and in the process be able to raise money for a local cause.”

Stephen Sumner, Founder, Optimise Agency

As Optimize is a relatively new online marketing agency, we have not yet fully developed our thoughts and plans on corporate social responsibility, that said, we have some things in place already and few plans in the pipeline I'm happy to discuss today. 

When it comes to the environment, we care passionately about protecting it as much as possible, for this reason, we generally avoid face-to-face meetings that involve over an hour of travel time, for meetings that would be over an hour away, we aim to use communication channels such as Skype or Zoom to facilitate such meetings. 

We also limit the number of conferences we attend each year and limit those that require air travel even further. We also believe in contributing to the local community in which we are based and this year, we intend to offer apprenticeships and local sponsorship/contributions to organisations that deliver positive change locally. 

Chris Sloane, President, Heaviside Group

We view our corporate social responsibility primarily as serving and giving back locally where we do live and work. We also want to help out where there is a greater need and not necessarily funneling donations to nonprofits who then give that money back out. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but we look for the "little guys" who may not have access to that. Helping sponsor a Cub Scout pinewood derby race is one way we've helped in the past. Kids sports teams are always looking for local sponsors to help cover equipment and uniform costs.

The other area we look to help is free or reduced costs services. We've known people involved in local nonprofits who needed to build a new website or could use some help getting their Google Grants accounts approved and running. Those groups happened to be supporting causes we care about, and so we offered free support to help them with their projects.

Chris Porteous, Founder and SEO Director at My SEO Sucks

Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, both at home and abroad.

At the on-set of our agency, I felt very strongly about the importance of education in low income areas, both locally and across the globe. While My SEO Sucks was making donations to education-based charities, more could be done.

It’s important for business around the globe to leverage their unique advantages to help those who are less fortunate. In our case, My SEO Sucks invests a large portion of its resources into training, educational videos and internal certification programs to develop the best and brightest in the digital marketing industry. How can we leverage this further to make a difference in the community?

Locally, we provide 1-on-1 mentorships and set aside approximately 15 hours for employee education initiatives each month. In recent years, we've gone a step further and provided free digital marketing resources and training to those in developing countries. There’s no limit to what any human in the world can accomplish with the right education.

Kris Nicolaou, Founder and Digital Strategist at Brain Box Labs

It's often tricky finding opportunities to give back to the extent we would like to while running a small business. Each year, we have around a dozen not-for-profit companies reach out to us to help them with their web design and development projects. We usually end up working with all of them and provide each discounted services. While we were able to help each non-profit, the impact was less significant than we could have hoped for.

That changed in 2016. Of those non-profit companies, we selected one that we felt we could contribute and have the greatest impact on their success, and complete the

ir project at cost. It's not much, and we definitely could do more, but this initiative continues to evolve as we strive to 'do more' for our community.

But giving back doesn't need to mean 'giving away free work.' It can also mean how you conduct yourself with employees, clients, and partners. Have integrity, be ethical, and treat people with respect. Take responsibility for your words and actions. When they are full of good intentions, you can always walk away from any situation with a clean conscience.

If I can leave you with some words of wisdom (I should probably have lead with this): make a change today that your future self will thank you tomorrow.

Jason Berkowitz, SEO Director, Break the Web

In today’s socially conscious environment, consumers are more apt to spend their money with brands that prioritize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Your brand image is more important than ever, and even virtual companies like ours should make every effort to have a positive impact on the community and environment.

In fact, employees also tend to be prouder and more committed to employers who are socially conscious. Social responsibility isn’t just about treating employees fairly or meeting legal and ethical standards. It’s about showing concern for the public and being a productive member of the community. But, how can this be achieved in a virtual work environment?

Virtual companies can start by encouraging their staff to take time off to volunteer in their local community. And, they can set a good example by donating money, services, or products to charities and other worthwhile causes.

Involving your staff and even your customers in your efforts to give back also fosters a sense of community and engagement, which isn’t always easy to achieve for virtual companies. Being socially conscious can help your business stand out in a crowded marketplace and encourage brand loyalty, so it’s a win for you, your staff, and the community.

Amanda Thomas, Partner, Konstruct Digital

Corporate responsibility is a big topic these days and for good reason. Aside from being an employer and economic driver, corporations can play a key part in both civic and national pride through their support of communities.

This year, Konstruct Digital sponsored ReProm, a gala event for LGBTQ2S+ adults to re-experience prom on their own terms. There are many LGBTQ2S+ adults who weren't able to be "out" at their high-school prom, unable to attend the event as their true selves. The event was put on by the Centre for Sexuality and was a fundraiser for their LGBTQ2S+ programs. Sponsoring this event was an important alignment for our company. Not only was it a great opportunity to support an organization that does amazing work in our community, but also to align ourselves as an open and inclusive employer.

Another side benefit is encouraging your staff to be great corporate citizens while also strengthening their ties to the community.

Nick Eubanks, CEO, From The Future

We run a digital marketing apprenticeship (still using the old SEO domain) that supports anyone, at any age, and any level of capability (including ZERO) to get skilled up enough to land a full-time job at a digital agency. 

We've had folks in their teens, twenties, and thirties (so far) with no experience in marketing at all, with jobs like bartender, line cook, retail merchandising, and even straight out of high school successfully go through our program.

 I'm proud to say that as of today we have more members on the team at FTF that went through the apprentice program than didn't.

Dan Christensen, President, MorningDove Marketing

Employees and customers are changing the way they perceive the companies they work with. They not only want a company who is good to work with, they want them to actually BE good, too. Whether this means donating to a local charity, performing service, or creating initiatives, it's more important than ever to create a brand that's associated with good things. 

We have built many sites for local organizations for free in order to render service and help others. We’re constantly thinking of new ways to be a blessing to our local community. One thing we’ll be implementing in the near future is a “micro charity” where people pledge one dollar per week to help the community and we, through submissions, use it to help a family in need. 

We’d do something like this either way, but knowing that this act is directly associated with our company can’t hurt either.

Jordan Choo, Managing Partner, Kogneta

One of the way that we fulfill corporate responsibility in our culture is by instilling it during the hiring process. Since we are a remote company, we are able to hire people from across the globe. 

This not only ensures that we have a diverse and inclusive team it also gives us the opportunity to bring in team members who otherwise wouldn't have work all while upskilling them. This could be due to local economies, lack of access to career development resources or cultural reasons.

Gary Simpson, CEO, The Wave Digital

At Wave Digital, we are being proactive in the Covid-19 situation by allowing all employees to work remotely and being flexible with their needs. We have cut out unnecessary expenses to also allow us to keep all members of our staff through this trying time. 

We are also encouraging our staff to donate to local funds for service workers that are unable to work and aren’t as privileged as ourselves. The company is also matching each of these donations and contributing a large amount to help the community and those in need.

We are blessed to be able to continue our craft, and have steady work, but we must think of our fellow neighbors who may not have the same opportunities as we do. Our goal is to come out of this as a better team and with a more positive and caring culture. Every company will be defined by how they act through this unprecedented time.

Paul Leary, Founder, Are You On Page 1

The intention and liability placed on companies by society are comprehensive. In-line with the moment, they are broadening from product quality and assurance, and address environmental issues, to information security, compliance, and labor management and employee rights.

In the field of business as well, with the growth of globalization the interest from customers and business associates to deal with companies that meet the certain benchmark in terms of deliberation paid to the international environment and society is growing.

In harmony with our corporate philosophies, working and living together for a common good. We make candid efforts to engage with the social obligations that come with operating a business and to acknowledge any significant knowledge.

This key statement echo’s our stand regarding the underlying and universal corporate social duty that the Company must accomplish in order to ensure our services and products can be used with satisfaction and continue the reliability of the Group.

Yuri Burchenya, Cofounder, Getfound XL

We’re focusing on fulfilling our responsibilities towards our employees and clients first. 

And being socially responsible is something we’re doing privately. Without advertising it to the world, putting it in our mission statement, producing quarterly 20-page reports, or expecting to get anything in return from our clients in exchange for being socially responsible.

When you’re focusing on social responsibility as an individual, it’s a lot easier to tailor your efforts to matters close to your heart. 

For example, did you know that in the last 30 years, giraffe numbers have plummeted 30 percent? By some estimates, there are less than 100,000 individuals remaining in Africa. 

Africa’s most iconic mammal and the tallest animal on Earth is in danger. You can adopt a giraffe and help save them before it’s too late. Research giraffe conservation foundation to learn more. 

Jonny Platt, Founder, SEOscout

I first got into the web by creating a charity fundraising portal back in 2002, where all commissions generated from online shopping were donated to charity. This taught me SEO and lead to a stint as a VSO volunteer in Vietnam. 

To supplement the stipend I received for living costs I started building personal affiliate sites which lead to the business I run today.

Now, as a solo founder I tend to support causes personal to me. As I launched my business while living in Vietnam I now try to help organisations working there to help disadvantaged children. 

Most recently with all the stockpiling going on we've been making donations to local food banks in Bristol too, as well as a couple of homeless and environmental charities.

Where possible I also try to support businesses I believe in when spending on the business. The majority of our servers are powered by renewable energy, and I aim to buy from fellow bootstrapped businesses over corporations wherever possible.

After putting so much effort into writing about your company activities regarding corporate social responsibility why wouldn’t you take the extra step to have a single place where you can keep your content? This is where an online newsroom comes in handy.

Cover photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash

The post What These 15 Digital Agency Owners Do To Fulfill Their Corporate Social Responsibility appeared first on Prowly.

The potential for CSR is significant, mostly down to the cash value of corporate investments compared with a governmental fund or individual donations. However, a significant number of companies engage in CSR as a marketing ploy and are not motivated to generate actual benefit with their programs. The question then becomes, how much of CSR actually makes a difference, and how can companies do it right?

Greenwashing: CSR as a marketing stunt

Back in 2015, Volkswagen became the poster child for how to fail at CSR. Whilst claiming to support the environment by producing environmentally friendly cars, the company in fact did not employ a host of ethical standards, showing that their commitment to the environment was entirely a marketing stunt to improve sales. The discovery resulted in a huge scandal, the resignation of their CEO, and losing the trust of their consumers.

Volkswagen’s lesson is that you can’t engage in CSR unless you’re truly committed. If you try and half-heartedly pursue massive goals, your consumers will eventually find out and the impact will be severe. When thinking about CSR goals, be realistic about what you can achieve and what difference you want to make. A small goal pursued genuinely is more powerful than a major change that you don’t really care about.

6 Key Steps In Developing CSR programs

If you’ve identified a goal you are genuinely passionate about and believe your company can make a significant difference in, there are a few things to bear in mind when creating your CSR program.

1. Have clear intentions

As we touched on above, there’s no use shouting about big goals if you’re not able to properly pursue them. Similarly, chasing a goal bigger than you could ever achieve is not going to do much for your social reputation. Pick something significant but a to start with, or better yet an overall vision with smaller achievements along the way, to show your consumers you’re actively working on your CSR.

This also ties into motivation. Saving the whales is a great goal, but unless your business has something to do with whales consumers may wonder why you’re not pursuing goals more relevant to you. Find something you have a clear and consistent motivation to pursue, whether it’s something personal to your CEO or mitigating the impact of your operations, and explain to consumers why it’s important to you.

2. Start With Your Reputation

CSR initiatives are often what companies turn to salvage their reputations after scandals. This is where the disingenuous goals really come into play: they never had any intention of saving the whales, but everyone loves whales so they hope a fund might win them favor with their consumers. 

The thing is, consumers are aware now of that tactic, so it rarely works. CSR generally enhances an already good reputation rather than improving a bad one, so don’t think of it as a way to engender your brand to consumers. CSR should be a small part of your overall reputation, not the thing that holds it all together.

3. CSR is not a weapon 

In a similar vein, try to avoid using your CSR initiatives as a weapon to skewer your competitors. Advertising a social project your funding is fine, but if you start to point out how much more socially conscious you are than your competitors you will come across as petty and your consumers’ suspicions will be roused again.

A much more powerful tactic is to involve your competitors in your CSR programs. Keelly Brooke, a PR expert at Writinity and Lastminutewriting, reminds us that “initiatives involving multiple companies are far more impactful than individual corporate actions, so inviting your competitors to cooperate or contribute to your programs is a great way to make a more significant difference and prove to your consumers that this isn’t about your reputation (even if it is).”

4. It Takes Time

Don’t expect an immediate win with your social change programs. As we’ve mentioned, your consumers will be naturally suspicious at first, so trying to turn around your successes too quickly will come across as opportunistic.

This is precisely why you have to be genuinely interested in your CSR goals. The media rarely reports on CSR goals when asked to do so by companies, but might report if the change your program is making is significant enough to become a news story. Putting effort and investment into a goal that eventually becomes a news story is a far more humble and, as a result, more effective marketing tool than shouting about a plan to appear altruistic.

5. Be proud, but reactive

That doesn’t mean you should stay entirely silent on your CSR initiatives. It’s fine to talk about what god you’re doing as a company, in fact, you should aim to have a  program you can be proud of, but don’t put it front and center all the time or it becomes a shield, and shields weaken over time.

“Your CSR goals are best used sparingly, but reactively,” says Dina Harmon, a business writer at Draftbeyond and Researchpapersuk. “When your company’s integrity is called into question, point to your CSR programs as an example of how you support your intentions. This should also inspire you to keep on improving your offerings, proving after every attack that you’#re not resting on your laurels.”

💡 Tip: Explore this article to learn more about how reactive PR compares to proactive PR—and how to put it into action.

6. Pay attention to culture

A small but important point: different countries react to altruism differently. The U.S. and U.K. are comfortable with corporate charitable actions, whereas in Western European countries governments are expected to do the brunt of charitable work. If you operate multinationally, pay attention to cultural differences when you talk about your CSR.

Cover photo by niko photos on Unsplash

The post 6 Key Steps In Managing Corporate Social Responsibility appeared first on Prowly.