CSR: Changing Roles of Corporate Foundations
The CSR mandate has encouraged many corporates to take up the matter of social, national and environmental development in their own hands. Instead of associating themselves with a non-profit or an NGO, many corporates have established their own foundations to overlook the activities of it and utilized the foundation to demonstrate their contribution to society.
Corporate foundations in different parts of the globe are moving away from their traditional models of philanthropy towards a more strategic approach to social impact, often in partnership with their founding company. Foundations around the world are innovating by leveraging their unique assets to solve some of society’s biggest challenges.
This strategic approach allows greater autonomy and remit for foundations to leverage their corporate resources to drive social innovation. However, the challenge for many foundations is how to differentiate their role and value to funders, rethink their business models and adopt sustainable strategies to remain relevant. Following are four possible areas of differentiation:
Partnerships
Independence from companies allows credibility and the possibility of bringing together a large number of actors and funders to address one issue. Foundations can act as the intermediaries between companies, NGOs, academics and other organisations.
Accelerating Innovative Thinking
Corporate foundations provide a place for innovation and trialling of new approaches where companies cannot often make commitments. Foundations are drawing on valuable links to the parent company and making use of business acumen to develop new models of giving.
Expertise in Global Challenges
Working with both the business and other organisations external to the business allows corporate foundations to differentiate themselves with access to knowledge and networks. They can leverage this expertise to address social and environmental issues in a better way.
Demonstrating Impact
Impact measurement has become a focus for foundations in the past few years. Impact measurement provides insights to enable foundations to improve management and delivery, as well as informing future strategic direction and objectives. It is also crucial for strengthening communication and engagement with external audiences by creating a more powerful story.
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