Mid-Sized Companies are Hungry for CSR but Need the Right Utensils

From The Starbucks Foundation’s work that improves education to Coca-Cola’s 5by20 initiative, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs operated by large companies continue to make headlines. But what about the great CSR work mid-sized companies are doing? Increasingly, we’ve noticed that mid-sized companies, like Adobe, Hasbro, and Salesforce.com, are leading CSR initiatives that contribute to positive social change and business performance on a significant scale. These companies are recognizing the value of CSR as a tool to drive true community engagement and increase employee loyalty.

One of our clients, Business4Better (B4B), is accelerating this global movement of mid-sized companies doing business with purpose by helping them cultivate corporate and nonprofit partnerships that have positive impacts on communities. Steering a global movement certainly requires an understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities that shape the CSR landscape for mid-sized companies. So to determine how these companies do CSR, B4B surveyed business leaders about their companies’ current practices. B4B found that many mid-sized companies are at a tipping point; most are ready to establish their CSR programs or further develop existing ones. While these companies’ ambitions are in the right place, many lack the tools needed to achieve these goals, as well as efficiently and effectively execute CSR programs.

This Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST, Fenton’s Susan McPherson will host a Twitter #CSRChat with special guest Scott Vaughan (@ScottAVaughan), chief marketing officer for UBM Tech and marketing director for the upcoming B4B Conference. Susan and Scott will discuss more compelling findings from B4B’s survey that explore the trends, challenges and opportunities facing mid-sized companies that are engaged with social good. Scott will highlight some of the motivating factors that drive mid-sized companies to establish CSR programs, ways to encourage company-wide participation, helpful resources for companies that are looking to grow their CSR efforts and more.

Want to join the #CSRChat this Wednesday? Here are some ways you can prepare and participate:

  • Follow @susanmcp1 and @ScottAVaughan
  • Set a #CSRChat reminder for March 20 at 3 p.m. EST
  • Follow the #CSRChat conversation on Twitter and join by including #CSRChat in your tweets
  • Invite your friends and networks to participate using the following tweet: On 3/20 at 3 p.m. EST, @susanmcp1 will host the bi-weekly #CSRChat w/ @ScottAVaughan on #midsize companies and #CSR. Join us!

See you on Twitter!