Are You a Company That Is Socially Responsible Or a Socially Responsible Company?

Huh! What's the difference? That's what I thought when I heard about research done by social psychologists out of Stanford about the effects that a slight change of wording had on voting behaviors, a personal form of social responsibility.

In a survey, half of the group were asked whether it was "important to vote" versus the other half  which were asked whether it was "important to be a voter". The group asked about being a voter, voted in a following election almost 30% more  than the other group. The conclusion the researchers made was that a simple change in wording helps increase the voter's self concept, or as they suggested vanity, which led to an increase in that positive behavior.

Might the issue of self concept apply to businesses also? Plenty of companies might answer that, yes, it is important to be socially responsible. But is it more effective for a business to think of themselves as a socially responsible company? Look at how Indira Nooyi: CEO of Pepsi in a video clip from a former post defines PepsiCo: "I want Pepsi to viewed as a socially responsible business."

Sounds like playing with semantics, and yet think about it.  This sounds more like pride and commitment than just vanity, and that commitment implies that social responsibility permeates through every strategic decision. Being thought of as a socially responsible company also brings about value to the company: values that permeate the culture; a great emplyee hiring and development tool (especially through volunteering); and a marketing advantage with customers who prefer to buy from socially responsible businesses.

I encourage companies to engage in social responsibility in any way they can, either through their community involvement, philanthropy, or through  environmentally sustainable practices. Every little bit matters.

But choosing to be a socially responsible company throughout sets the bar to a greater height and creates value for the companies and their communities. What a slight change in wording can do!

Ways Your Business Can Act Kindly

Last year on Valentine's Day I posted one of MY favorite posts: What's Love Got To Do With Business Giving. This year I have learned that Valentines's Day is also the first day of  Random Acts of KindnessWeek.

While the debate of whether business should  incorporate CSR, was a big news item this past year, imagine how superfluous and very un-businesslike the idea of incorporating  "love" and now "kindness" may seem in the domain of business practices, while cynics surely think business acting kindly is an oxymoron. Yet I hear about restaurants that give leftover baked goods to local food banks, or shoe repair shops that collect old shoes to repair and give to the needy. Businesses like Panera Bread,  pay as you want cafe,  have sprung up this year whose business models are basically based on  kindness.   

One doesn't need to change or create a whole new business model to be kind and give back. The point of the Random Acts Of  Kindness Week is more about stopping to think about being kind to others in small, perhaps unplanned and spontaneous ways. While I encourage small businesses to create plans for their giving so that they can have a more strategic and long term  impact on their communities, the idea of a short period of time where spontaneous acts of caring towards others in the community, towards employees and customers; where giving back in simple yet direct ways, connects everyone with the real meaning of philanthropy, "love of humankind"  more readily.

This is one area where small businesses have an advantage over  big corporations, in that they see in their day to day operations the needs of their community and their customers and can act on them more readily and spontaneously.

Throughout this blog there are hundreds of tips and suggestions for giving and for acts of kindness that any business can use this week, or any time. The organization, Random Acts of Kindness offers their list of ideas for businesses to try.  Better yet, if your business is considering developing a giving plan, try to include a week of spontaneous giving like this one into the future. Can you measure the impact of this? Maybe not.
But, your employees will be happier in the workplace, your customers will appreciate you all the more and your community will be a better place to live and to do business, at least for one week.

WORKPLACE IDEAS

• Collect goodies for children to donate to city service workers (e.g., police, firefighters, animal shelter).
• Send floral arrangements to senior centers, nursing homes, police station, hospitals, etc. near your office.
• Collect goods throughout RAK Week (or during the whole year) for a food bank or shelter.
• Give coupons for discounted or free goods to schools to use as incentives for their kindness programs.
• If your office has a RAK Week committee, put out a memo to your staff asking for volunteers to help plan and implement the next campaign.
• Donate a percentage of your revenue for one day to a group in need.
• Donate flowers to a meal delivery program.
• Take up a collection to purchase items needed by a nonprofit organization.
• Plant a Kindness Tree or Garden on the office grounds. Ask the mayor to give a brief presentation at the dedication.
• Organize a blood drive dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness.
• Sponsor a Random Acts of Kindness mascot to circulate, distributing gifts and suggestions for acts of kindness.
• Hand out suggestions for random acts of kindness to each customer or client, and offer a nominal discount in exchange for their pledge to do an act of kindness.
• Give away the first $10 of purchases on a given day or pick a couple of days during RAK Week to do this.
• Set up free coffee, tea, or hot chocolate for your employees.

Have some ideas for acts of kindness and giving in your workplace, random or planned, please share  them here!

An Oasis of Philanthropy in November

This last day of November gives me the opportunity to reflect on the special month in many ways that November has been.  Amidst a month of giving thanks, overeating, and shopping, there is an oasis of philanthropy.

November has Thanksgiving Day, designated shopping days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the newly created Small Business Saturday, ( mentioned here earlier). And right smack in middle of this celebrated month exists another type of designated "day" meant to encourage and honor philanthropy, the act of caring and giving to others. National Philanthropy Day  founded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals has designated Nov 15th  for events all around the country. Last year more than 100 AFP chapters held NPD award ceremonie snot only on this day but throughout the entire month, on whichever day worked best for honoring the individuals,organizations and small businesses in their communities that "change the world with giving heart".

The official website of National Philanthropy Day lists the dates of the chapter events all throughout the country and the recipients of the awards. In northern California these following small businesses have been honored.

The Central Coast:
Earthbound Farm, the largest grower of organic produce in the United States,was named philanthropic organization of the year for the Central Coast as part of National Philanthropy Day for their support to a wide array of charities and more than 350 nonprofits. Many of these charities are nominated through their employee giving program. You can read their full story in the San Jose Mercury News

San Francisco:
Borel Private Bank & Trust Company for 30 years has been providing private banking, investment, and trust services on the San Francisco Peninsula. Borel has received this award in recognition of their support of over 243 community non-profit organizations with contributions and employee volunteerism.

Silicon Valley
The Wish Book of the Mercury News features stories of needy individuals families and organization with links for readers where they can earmark their donations. Since 1983, readers have donated more than $6.5 million for individualized needs such as wheelchairs, food or computer equipment for recipients.

Sacramento
Sleep Train‘s company philosophy has included a commitment to giving back to the community for over 20 years. Their philosophy about community involvement is that "their success is not measured by the bottom line alone". Sleep Train's main cause has been to help make a difference in the lives of foster children. Sleep Train, was  featured on our blog in 2009.

I hope National Philanthropy Day will continue to expand all over the country and be held almost every day in November somewhere-so the whole month of November can be thought of as a month of changing the world with a heart.

Zappos: Can a Company Create Social Impact With a Shoebox?

While the purpose of this blog is to explore different ways small and large businesses can create positive social impact, I took up the challenge of reviewing the book, "Delivering Happiness, A Path To Profits, Passion and Purpose" by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos. A challenge - because-how do I make a case that a very successful online shoe company with some moderate philanthropy and community involvement, by the nature of their unique corporate culture is really a great force for social good? 
 Conventionally speaking, double bottom line refers to businesses, mostly those considered as social enterprises, that measure their success both by their financial performance and their performance in terms of positive social impact. Zappos is not a conventional business and certainly would not be considered a conventional double bottom line one.  I am convinced that a company whose culture and entire business operations are primarily about the well-being of their employees and customers, can create enormous positive social impact, the kind that can become viral, contagious and can create a culture of caring about the world in general.      

It is important to place this book and its' message within the context of the burgeoning happiness movement. While there is certainly a lot going on in this area, with new books coming out every day studying or proposing methods of achieving  personal happiness, the world of business is not yet on board with this idea. Perhaps, happiness is too Pollyanish for the hard core business analysts to get behind. Only fairly recently have  several notable business and graduate schools created programs in positive organizational psychology and positive organizational scholarship that study the many aspects of corporate culture and leadership that contribute to work satisfaction and wellbeing,  language that corporate thinking may be able to relate to more easily. Even so, no matter what one calls it, happiness or wellbeing, businesses often have difficulty seeing the ROI on spending the time and money creating a culture and environment that promotes great customer service, satisfaction, and happiness in the workplace environment. This book should hopefully change that notion.  

Small and large businesses can use this book as inspiration and as a how-to for building positive teams, developing company mission and value statements, increasing employee engagement and morale, developing  a customer service training program, and so much more- even how to  have fun at work!  And as a guide for leaders -from executive washrooms to boardrooms, to the back rooms of small business, to the garages of startups-business owners and leaders can look to Tony’s leadership ideals and principles to model their own leadership styles by and to embed these principles in their companies from the beginning.  

Tony, and I believe he speaks as a collective voice of the company, has a personal mission to make the world a better place. If other companies choose to follow their example,  they will indeed create a corporate culture that cares about the employees and customers, and that will extend to caring about their local communities and about the many problems in the world that sorely need to be addressed.

What's Love Got To Do With Business Giving?

In honor of St.Valentines Day and the upcoming anniversary of my blog, I decided to indulge myself in some reflection on the state of business giving and the direction that it may be and should be taking. Running in my head is the famous Tina Turner song: "What's Love Got To Do With It" and as the lyrics continue:  "it's a second hand emotion."

This past year there has been so much emphasis on accountability, measurement, strategic planning, it seems as though the whole sector of non-profits and philanthropy has forgotten what the words "philanthropy" and "charity" are about. Philanthropy is about the love of others, and charity,has it roots from the Latin word for caring, "caritas".

Yesterday I was talking with a friend who has recently stepped down as the director of a board of a Jewish educational non-profit. She was lamenting the fact that foundations, their chief source of revenue, were so intent on the non-profits proving their impact with metrics, that the non-profit's visionary and innovative ideas were being stifled.

And yet, from the perspective of a business and its philanthropic giving, the value of "having a heart" has a positive effect. Following the post, BlackBaud's Wide Reach, I spoke with Melanie Mathos, the PR Manager for Blackbaud and I told her how impressed by Blackbaud's employee engagement program. "That's one of the reasons why people love to work here", she said.

Yes, it's important to understand and carefully assess to whom and the best ways to give to a charity. But, charity and giving, are not second hand emotions or even second hand ways to make a decision about where to focus your business giving.

Discovering what you and your employees care about, may very well be the first place the start.