A Quarterly CSR Plan to Make the Most Impact in 2017
The New Year is often a time where we all decide to hit the reset button. It’s supposed to be good for you, your health, personal life or business, but it also can bring on a lot of added stress. Where do you begin? How do you keep the momentum going? There isn’t enough time in January to make monumental changes all at once! Plus, that’s the best way to burn out… trying to do too much.
When it comes to corporate social responsibility initiatives, we know that CSR is tied to business performance and increases when companies have bigger budgets, more resources, roles and responsibilities in their CSR departments, and demand from employees and customers to be socially responsible. Corporate philanthropy and grantmaking may already be an established system because of these factors, but whether you’re looking to establish something new or revamp something that already exists, the need to make an organized plan is huge.
Here’s a little something to get you started…
Quarter 1: Planning
Define Your Corporate Philanthropy Impact Model
The models: Cluster, Confetti, Concentrated and Ecosystem Change can be a great place to start formulating or revamping your efforts. Take a look at what these impact models consist of:
Model: Cluster
What it is: A clustered model focuses on charities and causes that fall within the company’s industry.
Example: A company in the medical industry that focuses solely on STEM education at an early age for their initiatives.
Who it Works for: Organizations that work primarily within one industry.
Challenges: Campaigns can become monotonous making participation suffer. On the upside, they can be seen as tradition. To get the best of both worlds, we recommend switching up the format every year to provide a unique twist to a traditional campaign everyone knows and loves.
Model: Confetti
What it is: A confetti model is less focused and revolved around local or stakeholder needs.
Example: A company in the retail industry that focuses on diverse topics of cause work for their initiatives.
Who it Works for: Organizations that are looking to receive a wide variety of partnerships, opportunities or publicity.
Challenges: This model tends to get unorganized because it’s scattered by nature. A lack of a solid process or program structure can hamper communication and results will suffer. Invest in a system that combines corporate philanthropy programs and grantmaking in one platform to streamline all efforts.
Think you might need concentrated or ecosystem change? Read more about those philanthropy impact models here!
Quarter 2: Investing
Make the Switch to a Complete One Stop Shop CSR & Grantmaking Platform
Embracing corporate philanthropy software helps support your initiatives like no manual process can ever do. Finding the right system is key, so look for one that offers expert support, internal automation and dependable security. Take things a step further…
- Learn our best practices for selecting a philanthropy and grantmaking partner.
- Be aware of the top qualities your selected software partner should have.
- Get step-by-step instructions to gather the information, data and support you need from your organization before making your pitch to the executive team.
Quarter 3: Engaging
Push Ahead Full Force to Increase Participation & Prove ROI
Participant engagement should always be top of mind, but after you’ve implemented a new system or process it should be your biggest focus. There are many tried and true practices to encourage employee participation; however, these are some of our best tips yet.
- Use these 5 simple tricks to encourage employees to give back.
- Share your story with employees to inspire their participation.
- See how to engage the millennials in your organization and make them your biggest drivers of CSR initiatives.
Quarter 4: Measuring
Assess Programs and Initiatives to See What Improvements Need to be Made
There is always good reason to measure outcome and effects of a year’s efforts to understand its effectiveness and inform future actions. Measuring outcomes to find out what worked and didn’t work doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to happen at the end of the year. We do want measurement to be an ongoing process, but after your quarterly plan has been carried out, reporting must be done.
- Know what to evaluate when measuring your company’s social impact.
- Look into these metrics to get a better perspective.
Make it easier and not such a hassle with a complete one-stop-shop corporate philanthropy and grantmaking system.
