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Companies have a lot to teach charities about social responsibility, argues Jon Duschinsky
A while back, I was a reluctant participant at a conference given by the head of corporate social responsibility for a major European food producer. I sat down at the back and pulled out my notepad ready for two hours of doodling. But, despite my scepticism, I found myself paying more and more attention to the speaker, before realizing that I was not only hooked, but really convinced about what good things they were doing. From the smallest supplier, all the way to the chief executive, this company was involving its entire organization in a new, more environmentally and ethically durable way of doing things. At the end, I was shocked to find my notepad was not filled with doodles, but great examples of CSR in action.
Isn’t it funny how corporates are thinking about these questions, whereas we in the charity sector generally are not? We all view ourselves as, by definition, ethical organizations, doing great work to make the world a better place. But how many of us are really stopping to think about how we can involve our stakeholders and our beneficiaries in our fundraising and activities? What if, instead of talking about corporate social responsibility, we, in the charity sector, started talking about charity social responsibility – or ChSR?
A few years ago the French charity I work for, Handicap International, decided to start mailing a donor recruitment pack from Cambodia. In partnership with another NGO, we set up a manufacturing unit to produce the mailpack that would employ the mothers of underprivileged kids in Cambodia. Paid the equivalent of a civil-service salary, these women were given a boost to get back on their feet. The mailpack was a huge success because potential European donors are more likely to open an envelope with an exotic postage stamp than one from nearer home, so the extra cost of postage was far outweighed by the income that was generated. Over the following years we mailed more than 14 million to France. Several hundred women worked at the manufacturing unit during this time, and the majority of them went on to further stable employment.
So this kind of thing can be done in the charity sector, with a bit of thought. Handicap International was going out of its way to involve beneficiaries in the production of fundraising materials, and in doing so, was improving the lot of those beneficiaries. Can the charity sector really afford to stand by and watch while companies incorporate social responsibility into their supply chains while we don’t? Aren’t we going to be running the risk of finding ourselves in a few years time having to catch up with some rather unpleasant multinationals?
Jon Duschinsky is head of the French fundraising umbrella organization Union pour la Générosité
A while back, I was a reluctant participant at a conference given by the head of corporate social responsibility for a major European food producer. I sat down at the back and pulled out my notepad ready for two hours of doodling. But, despite my scepticism, I found myself paying more and more attention to the speaker, before realizing that I was not only hooked, but really convinced about what good things they were doing. From the smallest supplier, all the way to the chief executive, this company was involving its entire organization in a new, more environmentally and ethically durable way of doing things. At the end, I was shocked to find my notepad was not filled with doodles, but great examples of CSR in action.
Isn’t it funny how corporates are thinking about these questions, whereas we in the charity sector generally are not? We all view ourselves as, by definition, ethical organizations, doing great work to make the world a better place. But how many of us are really stopping to think about how we can involve our stakeholders and our beneficiaries in our fundraising and activities? What if, instead of talking about corporate social responsibility, we, in the charity sector, started talking about charity social responsibility – or ChSR?
A few years ago the French charity I work for, Handicap International, decided to start mailing a donor recruitment pack from Cambodia. In partnership with another NGO, we set up a manufacturing unit to produce the mailpack that would employ the mothers of underprivileged kids in Cambodia. Paid the equivalent of a civil-service salary, these women were given a boost to get back on their feet. The mailpack was a huge success because potential European donors are more likely to open an envelope with an exotic postage stamp than one from nearer home, so the extra cost of postage was far outweighed by the income that was generated. Over the following years we mailed more than 14 million to France. Several hundred women worked at the manufacturing unit during this time, and the majority of them went on to further stable employment.
So this kind of thing can be done in the charity sector, with a bit of thought. Handicap International was going out of its way to involve beneficiaries in the production of fundraising materials, and in doing so, was improving the lot of those beneficiaries. Can the charity sector really afford to stand by and watch while companies incorporate social responsibility into their supply chains while we don’t? Aren’t we going to be running the risk of finding ourselves in a few years time having to catch up with some rather unpleasant multinationals?
Jon Duschinsky is head of the French fundraising umbrella organization Union pour la Générosité
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