Caroline Fiennes argues that companies using their assets to create change can have a far more effective impact than by simply giving cash
Excerpt: An illustration of that change is that corporate social responsibility indices used to include measures of the amount of money which a company had given. Mercifully these have virtually disappeared in favour of focusing on what has been achieved. Achievement is typically much greater when companies use their core commercial capabilities rather than just money.
For example, many l ogistics companies use their skills and capabilities to deliver much-needed aid to populations in the developing world.
TNT managed to get aid to communities affected by the south Asian tsunami within 48 hours, faster than any NGO could have. In Africa, the Coca-Cola Company has used the trucks and network which form its logistical operation to combat the spread of HIV and Aids. It distributed condoms and attractive information material to all those dusty villages in the back of beyond where, astonishingly, you can always get a Coke.
By contrast, Ikea recently gave tens of millions of pounds to a three-year programme for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to care for 120,000 refugees in the Horn of Africa. While that work is vital, Ikea's support would be more effective if it concentrated on leveraging its own resources and knowledge to create change, rather than handing out money.
Read on at:
Corporate giving: philanthropy without the money | Guardian Sustainable Business | guardian.co.uk
Excerpt: An illustration of that change is that corporate social responsibility indices used to include measures of the amount of money which a company had given. Mercifully these have virtually disappeared in favour of focusing on what has been achieved. Achievement is typically much greater when companies use their core commercial capabilities rather than just money.
For example, many l ogistics companies use their skills and capabilities to deliver much-needed aid to populations in the developing world.
TNT managed to get aid to communities affected by the south Asian tsunami within 48 hours, faster than any NGO could have. In Africa, the Coca-Cola Company has used the trucks and network which form its logistical operation to combat the spread of HIV and Aids. It distributed condoms and attractive information material to all those dusty villages in the back of beyond where, astonishingly, you can always get a Coke.
By contrast, Ikea recently gave tens of millions of pounds to a three-year programme for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, to care for 120,000 refugees in the Horn of Africa. While that work is vital, Ikea's support would be more effective if it concentrated on leveraging its own resources and knowledge to create change, rather than handing out money.
Read on at:
Corporate giving: philanthropy without the money | Guardian Sustainable Business | guardian.co.uk
