The Big Turn Off: 'professionalising' charities

If you ever over hear someone from 'business' say that charities need to become more 'professional', the immediate bristling response from said charity bods is almost audible. Imagine frozen lemon slices magically appearing in c-bods' mouths. And fair enough, really - it smacks of being told you are unprofessional, not good at your job. This rarely goes down well, least of all with those who do their job because they genuinely care and not for the end of year bonus they will never get.

That said, I do see where businesses are coming from too (can't resist straddling a fence when I see one). Constant - and arguably increasing - begging bowls from innumerable worthy causes that tug at your heart strings but give you no real link to your business, service or product, employees, customers, current agenda, or ideas on possible new initiatives or collaborations could drive anyone to distraction. I know, constraints on time and resource make it tricky to tailer every bid or request, but there must be some middle ground?

I heard some great advice yesterday, however, that got me thinking. It went like this. Charities need to realise that they are (or should be) the experts in their area. Corporates will pay generously for services such as employee training and development, team building, market research, product innovation - is this not exactly what an expert can provide? Charities' IP can be just as valuable as other 'professional' service providers, and this often untapped resource is worth paying for. This spurred me to realise that corporates need to get out of the mindframe that because it is a charity you are dealing with they should do it for free out of the kindness of their hearts.

The moment was somewhat spoiled by someone piping up that they would advise all charities to stop asking for money, full stop. Hmm, yes. Well. With no money to pay employees, there would be nobody there to do the asking, so I see what you did there you cheeky monkey. I get your point, but you over-cooked it a little. Kind of like 'positive' (pah!) discrimination - please don't take a good point and ruin it for the rest of us...

CSR goes kite surfing

My heart literally leapt for joy when I recently had a quick check on Acre's news summary and saw this - a German based company is using kite surfing as inspiration to create new technology that harnesses wind energy in a more efficient way than turbines.

GET IN. Work time passion combined with play time obsession.

Apparently the energy harnessed by kites increases eight times over when wind power increases only twice. Sounds like a pretty good investment return! Although remote controlled (and soon to be computer controlled - eek!) kites attached to 700m long cables conjures some VERY weird images in my head.

Kite surfing seems to be everywhere, even more so than  normal of late, what with its entry into the 2016 Olympics (kite racing, mind, which is rather different to what you'll see on your typical coastal windy day). Not surprising for a sport that has been, I believe, the fastest growing in the world for some years now. This news is awesome enough to prompt me out of my rather negligent absence from wittering on about CR. Oops. Too much time being dragged around the water by a kite attached to a paltry sounding 25 metres worth of lines...

Philanthropy vs CR

One of my pet peeves is when people refer to philanthropy as CR and vice versa. Now, I get that there are lots of different definitions of CR and people can be pernickety about what specific terminology you use, but really - confusing these two is just plain sloppy.

Let's be clear about one thing: philanthropy is about giving out of the goodness of your heart (read wallet) for the good of others. You know, charitable donations, setting up foundations to do wonderful things (that isn't said sarcastically btw), and such like.

CR is about running your business responsibly and initiatives that are set up to manage the impact on the lives of those affected by your business, preferably in a way that clearly relates to your product/service or the core purpose of your business.

So, take a law firm that provies pro bono lawyering services to poor communities, or a bank that goes into colleges to give advice on good money management. I call that CR loud and clear. Making monetary donations to a charity that isn't relevant to your business, however, is philanthropic no questions asked. An individual doesn't 'do' CR either - if it's a personal persuit you are a philanthropist.

Now, I am not claiming that one is better than the other as I strongly believe both are vital and have important places in society and business. I also realise philanthropy can be placed within CR (it would be too easy if it was totally clear cut, wouldn't it?!), but they are not the same thing, OK?!

Well, glad I got that one off my chest. This is kind of like free public therapy - ace!

CR: professional Marmite

Those of us working within CR are the professional version of Marmite. Almost without fail, talking about CR provokes two general reactions from your audience and those reactions can neatly be divided into two (again, general) groups of people. Those encountered socially or those at work who don't have daily contact with CR will remark "Oh really? How interesting!". They may share an opinion or experience, ask some questions, and generally express delight and wonder at your radiating halo and how you are managing to single-handedly save the world. Hurrah! No surprise, haha, that the other group - those whose job title doesn't include CR but who have to engage with it at work in some way - will roll their eyes / cross their arms / have a go at me / all of the above. The worst are just plain rude or vicious, and I can tell you it ain't all that infrequent either. I find it frustrating and amusing in equal measures - I take it personally because I care, but I know they're going to have to care eventually whether they like it or not.

Everyone's reaction will be prompted by their own unique experiences but I do wonder where this antipathy has come from. Are we to blame, have we made it such a bad experience that the reaction is understandable and even proportionate? CR is evolving so quickly in so many different areas that even for those within the discipline it can be confusing and difficult to understand what is going on, so it's no small wonder those who don't really give a damn find the whole lot too much of a kerfuffle to bother. And of course if you don't look at the facts behind the trends or understand the context of each case you won't be seeing the real picture.

By virtue of what I do my outlook is skewed towards thinking in the context of ethical trading within retail, so I must own up to that now. By asking colleagues/brands/agents/licensees/suppliers to ensure products are developed and sourced responsibly you are having the effect of incurring cost (audits, materials, product prices) and it may slow things down (to give us time to check factories aren't using slavery/child labour/death traps). Neither of these things go down well with those being pressed on all sides to deliver better quality products at lower prices within shorter lead times; that's like being between a rock and ten hard places all at once.

I don't think there is a particular solution to this, but I do approach it with a number of things in mind - persistence, willingness to try and make the process understandable and as easy as possible, consistency, patience, and again persistence. If you work within a company whose senior management fully embrace ethical trading then your life is instantly easier, a happy situation I enjoy. If not, yours will be a constant battle from within as well as without. Keep your chin up - every little bit of progress you effect is making real difference to the lives of those in the factories you are dealing with.

I don't think we should be ashamed to mention ethics in a business context, but please don't expect anyone to be interested in the details or your great stories (unless it's for the annual report). Fact - they bore people. I, on the other hand, love nothing more, but that's beside the point! The only tales of this kind that will grab attention are the ones when something bad has already happened and you / a competitor is being publicly roasted on the front of a newspaper.

Despite all this, I revel in the fact that - hate it though they do - the haters are going to have to jump on this particular bandwagon eventually. So quit your whining and get on with it, ok??

I'd rather be an idealist

Of the infinite motivating forces and practical constraints that will affect a business's CR agenda, I think there are two that need to be especially carefully balanced. But pitch the practical (business case, resources required, turning effort into results) against the idealistic (ethics, inspiring people, creating a vision) and the former will win almost every time. It is easy to see why, and I am not saying that isn't the way it should be. However, too much of either and you are taking a risk. Too practical and you may end up with an uninspiring and limited set of activities with equally limited effects. Too idealistic and you could be scoffed at all the while you fail to progress to your utopian fantasies.

I am a champion of the over-looked idealist, though. I worry that if we are too realistic we may be tempted not to really get stuck in or have big dreams. That is not good enough in any area of life or business and it smacks of quitting before you really start - would you think that about product development or marketing? I think not. Now, I am not suggesting going all guns blazing at an idea that seems improbable (or impossible!), but don't give it a miss just because it makes your brain ache or you think it will be difficult.

I call myself a realistic idealist. My ideals are the driving force, with my realistic side creating the day-to-day steps and solutions. Too flaky for you? Well, that's just too bad, isn't it.

It's all in the name

There are endless names for all of this, from CSR to sustainability, green to business ethics. Unsurprisingly there are just as many definitions ranging from the all-encompassing to the nit-picky specific most loved by specialists and geeks. For me I favour the broad - the whole lot can be best summed up by the term corporate responsibility - CR: your business doing what it does, but in a responsible manner. So this is how I shall refer to it from now on, you have been warned. As for what 'responsible' is, who you are responsible to, what it actually means in practice, well, we'll get onto that another time.

First, though, three of the most commonly used terminologies to help you navigate your way through the quagmire. 'Corporate Social Responsibility' or 'CSR' is the most commonly known, although it is now a rather misleading description. As I understand it, two separate streams of activity - the social and the environmental - developed over time, and at various points were paired up, merged, separated, the gaps filled in, evolved. This does well to explain where the 'S' of CSR came from, but while all this is very interesting (err...?!) I think there is little to be gained by dwelling on it; let's just get on with it please?

Another regular is 'sustainability', usually used to describe environmental impact or resource availability. 'Green' is in my opinion the most ridiculous of all and has done the most damage through misguided PR exploitation when talking about environmental impact. Use it and be prepared to hear me laugh at you.

There are all sorts of wonderful places that you can check out definitions and descriptions, although I must say that stalwart of modern day knowledge, Wikipedia, does a pretty good job of explaining CSR if you're interested. Do we need all these different terms? Maybe, maybe not - but if it gets more people talking about it because they get to use their new pet name then all the better, I say. Makes it awfully tricky when you're looking for a job though...

Is exercise irresponsible?

Exercise burns fuel and boosts your metabolism; the logic therefore goes that as you do more exercise you need more food (unless you're limiting what you eat - snore. Hardly a relevant discussion here). It's fair to say pretty much everyone is aware there are concerns about the earth's ability, both current and future, to produce enough food (and fresh water for that matter) for our rapidly expanding population. Should we do the right thing and reduce the amount of food we need? Should we stop exercising??

Add to this how much more washing you have to do to get those sweaty stinky clothes all clean and dry and ready to use again. Living with a rabid exerciser, I can tell you that washing machine is ALWAYS on. On the other hand, exercise improves your mental and physical health which means you're less likely to require medical treatment (resource heavy), right? But better health means you are likely to live longer, so you'll be consuming for longer. Harrumph. It's all too complicated!!

I hope you can see the tongue firmly stuck in cheek in this one - obviously I'm not being serious. Plus, it would be nigh on impossible to test this. Just a cheeky one to get started with...

Now, bring on the four day weekend - happy Jubilee!

I guess I'd better introduce myself...

Well, you don't actually need to know much about me but it's only fair to explain a little bit about why I care about CSR and why I'm beginning my blog. I must admit I feel a little shy (why would anyone want to know what I have to say, yada yada) but I have so many thoughts flying around in my head it's probably best just to get them down somewhere, even if nobody ever sees them and they're here just for posterity's sake!

I stumbled across this amazing thing called 'corporate social responsibility' about five years ago now, and have been trying to navigate my way since then - understanding the issues, exploring solutions, creating a career path. None of this has been easy, but I've had a few amazing role models and mentors along the way who have given me so many invaluable ideas and pointers. More often than not when I'm talking to people about what I do it turns into a long and engaged discussion - people find it interesting, yet usually know very little about it.

SO, what I hope is that my questions, ideas, suggestions are helpful for any of you newbies to the realm of corporate (social) responsibility or are merely thought-provoking for those of you who know more about it than me. Please feel free to challenge anything I say! I'll try not to ramble on too long in my over-excitement, but if I do you be sure to tell me to zip it. I have a whole list of topics I've been itching to write about for the last few years, so I'd better go get the first one ready to bare all. Kind of like the pasty British body prepping to peel off the layers in time for summer...