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    Skans School of Accountancy

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    shahab
    The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and strategies. It notes that effective CSR goes beyond monetary donations and should provide benefits for both the recipient organizations and the donating companies. Successful CSR programs are aligned with a company's core values and business objectives, and aim for measurable impacts such as increased sales, staff morale or reputation. The document also examines examples of CSR programs from companies like KPMG, Crumlin Children's Hospital, and One4All.

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    Skans School of Accountancy

    Uploaded by

    shahab
    38 views4 pages
    The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and strategies. It notes that effective CSR goes beyond monetary donations and should provide benefits for both the recipient organizations and the donating companies. Successful CSR programs are aligned with a company's core values and business objectives, and aim for measurable impacts such as increased sales, staff morale or reputation. The document also examines examples of CSR programs from companies like KPMG, Crumlin Children's Hospital, and One4All.

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    ACCA F1 TA

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    CSR

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    The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and strategies. It notes that effective CSR goes beyond monetary donations and should provide benefits for both the recipient organizations and the donating companies. Successful CSR programs are aligned with a company's core values and business objectives, and aim for measurable impacts such as increased sales, staff morale or reputation. The document also examines examples of CSR programs from companies like KPMG, Crumlin Children's Hospital, and One4All.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    38 views4 pages

    Skans School of Accountancy

    Uploaded by

    shahab
    The document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and strategies. It notes that effective CSR goes beyond monetary donations and should provide benefits for both the recipient organizations and the donating companies. Successful CSR programs are aligned with a company's core values and business objectives, and aim for measurable impacts such as increased sales, staff morale or reputation. The document also examines examples of CSR programs from companies like KPMG, Crumlin Children's Hospital, and One4All.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    SKANS SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

    Corporate responsibility programmes add up to more than simply handing


    out cash, and deliver benefits for both donors and recipients

    Just giving money is no longer good enough. In the world of corporate social
    responsibility (CSR), where companies want to be good corporate citizens, the
    focus is very much now on adding value, engaging with staff, customers and the
    recipients of corporate generosity, all the time with a firm eye on brand alignment
    and the overall impact on the business.

    The ideal CSR programme will achieve a win/win result, where supported organisations
    benefit but also where there is a measurable benefit for the company. It could be
    through increased sales, improved staff morale, a higher profile or improved corporate
    reputation, but whichever way it is measured, companies have woken up to the fact that
    it can be good to give.

    ‘CSR is now a common part of business conduct for all progressive organisations,’ says
    Ailish Smith, account director at PSG Plus, the Dublin-based corporate reputation
    agency. ‘However, CSR enjoys such a wide definition that almost anything can be
    positioned as CSR and this can actually undermine its importance. For some
    organisations CSR means meeting legal or regulatory obligations. For others, it is an
    ethos that drives every business activity and for some companies CSR is based simply
    around charitable giving.’

    According to Business in the Community (BITC) Ireland, 48 of the largest businesses in


    Ireland contributed more than €22m to community projects in 2014. This included €8.7m
    of in-kind donations, €10.5m in cash donations and €3.5m raised by employees.
    Volunteers gave more than 212,000 hours of their time to over 7,500 community
    projects. BITC Ireland sees a number of trends in CSR developing during 2016,
    including a focus on climate change, sustainable procurement, environmental matters,
    overwhelmed employees and gender diversity. These issues will emerge against the
    background of the European Union’s non-financial reporting directive (which must be
    adopted into Irish law to become effective from 2017) and the 17 United Nations
    sustainable business goals.

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    SKANS SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

    Core values and purpose

    Which is why it is important that organisations know and understand their own CSR
    priorities – how and why they are involved in such activity and, most importantly, how it
    is measured. As Smith says: ‘Ultimately, CSR must support your business objectives,
    but CSR is not about how much money you make; it is more about how you make your
    money. A vital part of the process should be devising a CSR strategy that aligns your
    company’s core values and purpose with behaviours day to day.’

    At KPMG, the firm endeavours to place CSR at the heart of its corporate strategy. ‘Our
    whole CSR strategy is embedded in all that we do day to day; we see it as being at the
    heart of all good organisations,’ explains Karina Howley, KPMG’s head of CSR in
    Ireland. ‘We are committed to making a difference in the communities within which we
    operate.’

    Howley says that, through BITC, the firm measures all the community connections that
    the staff have during the course of a year, including all donations, whether through pro-
    bono work or in cash, the hours that are put in and how much employees fundraise.
    ‘This annual assessment allows us to measure the impact,’ Howley explains.

    The firm splits its programme into different categories – community, charity, education,
    the environment, the developing world and workplace practices. ‘Education is one of the
    big areas for us – we hire well-educated people and we want to give back,’ she says.
    ‘Education is paramount in terms of developing our society for future success.’

    KPMG programmes include reading activities in primary schools, mentoring schemes in


    secondary schools and encouraging university students to be active in their
    communities. The ‘Get Cents’ money management programme – arguably a great fit for
    accountancy firms – is proving particularly popular, as is the firm’s ‘Stories in Boxes’,
    which provide multi-sensory interactive storytelling experiences for children with
    learning disabilities.

    KPMG is also among those that help other organisations measure the impact of their
    own programmes. The firm recently revealed that non-financial reporting among

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    SKANS SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

    Ireland’s largest companies lacked consistency, making it almost impossible for


    stakeholders to compare one company’s performance easily and accurately with
    another’s. More than half (57%) of these companies do include corporate responsibility
    information in their annual report, usually in a specific section dedicated to the topic,
    though only a quarter (26%) had such information verified by a third party, some way off
    the global average of 42%.

    Colm O’Se, a partner at KPMG, says that the findings showed a clear opportunity for
    companies to step up their commitment to providing good-quality information and
    reporting on non-financial matters. ‘Global reporting guidelines should help address the
    issue, but we all have a role to play,’ he says.

    These issues go wider than just CSR, but they serve to demonstrate the need to
    measure and report on such non-financial activities, as it can help both internal
    measurement of CSR programmes and external recognition of the value such
    programmes create.

    CMRF Crumlin, the Dublin-based children’s hospital, is one such organisation that
    recognises the value of CSR programmes, having benefited from corporate, as well as
    individual, generosity over the years. ‘Engagement with corporate donors is a two-way
    street,’ says Crumlin’s chief executive Joe Quinsey. ‘We never say it is all about us or
    all about the children; we want to work out what is important for the corporates and how
    we can engage with them.’

    Customised engagement

    He adds that there can be a very eclectic mix of corporates wanting to give to the
    charity, so it is important to figure out the motivation of each. ‘We will then customise
    the engagement and the solution,’ he says, ‘learning from our bank of experience, as
    companies will ask us what we want or how can they help.’

    While Crumlin has a ‘handful’ of partnerships that are in for the long run, most will
    develop a specific programme, with a specific target that can last between one and two
    years. Quinsey sees that a strong CSR programme can be very effective for staff

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    SKANS SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

    engagement and will also demonstrate to the outside world the importance a company
    places on ‘doing good’. As he says: ‘CSR should be considered an important part of the
    corporate agenda. Taken seriously, the payback can be much bigger.’

    So what makes a successful CSR programme? According to Aoife Davey, group


    marketing manager for gift card provider One4all, an effective campaign must be tied to
    business objectives. ‘It should align with your brand,’ she says, adding that good staff
    engagement will boost motivation. ‘And it must resonate with your customers.’

    Indeed, One4All has teamed up with Crumlin for week-long shopping events, which see
    the company donating cash every time someone uses one of their gift cards. As well as
    raising €200,000, the event helps drive redemptions of gift cards – clearly a benefit to
    One4all and its retailing partners. Separately, One4all has raised €500,000 through its
    annual bike ride Cycle4Haiti, which also boosts its Bikes4work scheme.

    Smith advises companies to actively report their CSR successes. As she says: ‘A
    serious and strategic approach to CSR communication fosters transparency and
    enables an organisation to gain credibility and trust among stakeholders.’

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