Community Engagement and Investment

Alan S. Gutterman

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781953349910
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

This book is a comprehensive guide to community engagement and investment, beginning with a survey of community-related voluntary standards and then turning to strategy and management, community engagement, community investment and reporting and communications on community-related activities.

Sustainability is about the long-term wellbeing of society, an issue that encompasses a wide range of aspirational targets including ending poverty and hunger; ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all; ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all; and promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Clearly the challenges associated with pursuing the goals are daunting and for most businesses it may be difficult for them to see how they can play a meaningful role in address them. While it is common for "society" to be identified as an organizational stakeholder, the reality is that one company cannot, acting on its own, achieve all the goals associated with societal wellbeing. However, every company, regardless of its size, can make a difference in some small, yet meaningful way, in the communities in which they operate, and more and more attention is being focused on the impact that companies have within their communities. Focusing on the community level allows an organization to set meaningful targets and implement programs that fit the scale of its operations and which can provide the most immediate value to the organization and its stakeholders. Societal wellbeing projects and initiatives must ensure that the organization does not compromise, and instead improves, the wellbeing of local communities through its value chain and in society-at-large.

This book is a comprehensive guide to community engagement and investment, beginning with a survey of community-related voluntary standards and then turning to strategy and management, community engagement, community investment and reporting and communications on community-related activities.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Sustainability is about the long-term well-being of society, an issue that encompasses a wide range of aspirational targets including the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders that went into effect on January 1, 2016. The SDGs, which include, among other things, ending poverty and hunger, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, are based on the recognition that society in general is vulnerable to a number of significant environmental and social risks including failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, human-made environmental planning and disasters (e.g., oil spills), failure of urban planning, food crises, rapid and massive spread of infectious diseases, and profound social instability. Clearly the challenges described above are daunting and for most businesses it may be difficult for them to see how they can play a meaningful role in address them. While it is common for “society” to be identified as an organizational stakeholder, the reality is that one company cannot, acting on its own, achieve all the goals associated with societal well-being. However, every company, regardless of its size, can make a difference in some small, yet meaningful way, in the communities in which they operate, and more and more attention is being focused on the impact that companies have within their communities. Focusing on the community level allows an organization to set meaningful targets and implement programs that fit the scale of its operations and which can provide the most immediate value to the organization and its stakeholders.

While businesses generally benefit their communities by improving the standard of living and providing community members with products and services that fulfill their needs, companies can also contribute to society through philanthropy and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Philanthropy can take many forms and includes donations of cash, products, and employee time (i.e., volunteering) to charities and other nonprofit groups. Some companies enjoy engaging in cause-related marketing, which is essentially a partnership between a company and a nonprofit that calls for the business to market its products with a promise that a portion of the sales will be donated to the nonprofit. This strategy certainly benefits the nonprofit; however, the company obviously hopes that it will see a positive uptick in sales and be able to add to its customer base. CSR initiatives vis-à-vis the community includes recruiting and training disabled veterans and providing flexible schedules and benefits to Olympic athletes to support their training activities.

While the potential benefits of community engagement and investment for businesses are often framed as being readily apparent, it is useful to consider ideas about the specific aims and objectives of corporate community involvement. One comprehensive list included making people inside and outside the community aware of various problems in the community; ensuring that investment and development efforts occur across all sectors of the community and in multiple areas including education, health, recreation, and employment; motivating members of the community to participate in community welfare programs; providing equal opportunities within the community for access to education, health, and other facilities necessary for better well-being; building confidence among community members to help themselves and others; generating new ideas and changing patterns of life within the community in positive ways that do not negatively interfere with traditions and culture; bringing social reforms into the community; promoting social justice; developing effective methods to solve community programs including better communications between community members and local governments; and creating interest in community welfare among community members and mobilizing those members to participate in the collective work for community development.¹

The importance of organizational attention to its communities is illustrated by the inclusion of community involvement and development among the core subjects (along with organizational governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, and consumer issues) mentioned in ISO 26000: Guidance on Social Responsibility first issued by the International Organization for Standardization in 2010.² In the overview of the subject included in ISO 26000, the need for organizations to focus on community involvement and development was explained as follows:

It is widely accepted today that organizations have a relationship with the communities in which they operate. This relationship should be based on community involvement so as to contribute to community development. Community involvement—either individually or through associations seeking to enhance the public good—helps to strengthen civil society. Organizations that engage in a respectful manner with the community and its institutions reflect and reinforce democratic and civic values.³

Community engagement and investment activities provide organizations with important opportunities to leverage the impact of their contributions given that businesses typically rely on their local communities as a source of talent for the employee base, for contractors for services that the organization seeks to outsource and, of course, as a market for the organization’s products and services. By contributing to educational and health programs in the community, an organization can increase the skills base of potential workers, thereby reducing training costs when new employees are hired, and lower the risk of adverse impacts to productivity due to illnesses among its employees or their immediate family members, either of which can cause employees to miss time at work. Organizations can provide financial support, as well as licensed technology, to launch a local network of engineers, scientists, and/or software developers to generate innovations that not only benefits the organization but also provided new opportunities for other members of the community, thus improving overall community well-being. Finally, the proximity of local customers makes it easier for an organization to develop and communicate their marketing messages and seek and obtain feedback on the effectiveness of those messages and the quality and value of the product and services distributed by the organization. In fact, one of the compelling reasons for investing in community involvement at all levels is the relative ease of collecting and analyzing information relating to operational performance. Proximity to the human, technical, and other resources that can be developed and nurtured through community involvement and development also allows organizations to move more quickly to seize opportunities and obtain a competitive advantage.

Community engagement must be a permanent part of the strategy and operations of any organization and this means identifying community stakeholders as soon as possible and moving quickly establishing communications and understanding their needs and expectations regarding the organization and how it will operate within the community. Organizations need to under the issues that concern community members; the beliefs, values, and experiences that drive the actions of community members and how community groups interact with one another. Organizations also need to carefully select that best strategies for their relationships with their communities, typically choosing from among community investment, which is essentially a one-way process of providing information and resources to the community (e.g., information sessions, charitable donations, employee volunteering, etc.); community involvement, which involves two-way communications, such as consultation processes prior to launching a major project; and/or community integration, which involves sharing information and consultation in advance of launching collaborative projects that are jointly controlled with, and often led by, community groups.⁴

Community Development

Community engagement and investment by organizations is part of the larger wave of CSR. Ismail noted that the classical view of CSR had actually been limited to corporate philanthropy; however, the focus has gradually shifted toward emphasizing the relationship between business and society and contributions that companies can and should make to address social problems.⁵ The result of this evolution has been the current concept of CSR in which business organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, and other stakeholders as well as their environment. This means not only complying with applicable laws and regulations, but also acting in an ethical manner and proactively and voluntarily taking steps to improve the well-being of their employees and their families and the communities in which they are operating.⁶

One of the most-cited aspirations for business organizations with respect to their communities is providing a positive impact on community development and improving the quality of life and levels of well-being among the members of the community.⁷ One description of community development provided by Ismail referred to the process of developing active and sustainable communities based on social justice and mutual respect through initiatives undertaken by a community with partnership with external organizations or corporations to empower individuals and groups of people by providing those groups with the skills (i.e., how to make use of local resources and build political power through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda) they need to effect change in their own communities.⁸ Another interesting, and admittedly broad, definition of community development includes “intentional collective actions to improve social, economic, physical, and environmental well-being, while preserving valuable aspects of the culture of the particular geographic area.”⁹ Priorities with respect to well-being vary depending on the area and the level of economic and social development therein. For example, in the developed countries in North America and Europe community development tends to focus on housing issues; however, in less developed countries the concerns of community members tend to be coping with and overcoming threats to stability and fending off war, disease, famine, extreme poverty, and environmental dangers.

In 1971 the United Nations described community development as an organized effort of individuals in a community conducted in such a way to help solve community problems with a minimum help from external organizations such as government and nongovernment organizations and business enterprises of various types and sizes.¹⁰ This definition emphasizes creativity and self-reliance among community members while providing opportunities and duties for external organizations and businesses to contribute through CSR practices that provide education and organizational skills to the community.¹¹ Self-reliance is also an important element of the related concept of “community work,” which Ismael described as being about “the active involvement of people in the issues that affect their lives and focuses on the relation between individuals and groups and the institutions which shape their everyday experience.”¹² In the context of community work, businesses have a role in enabling sharing of skills, awareness, knowledge, and experience in order to bring about change in the community.

Common Roles of CSR in Community Development

Surveys have shown that commitment to CSR and related activities is an important driver of employee engagement and that employees care a great deal about how their employer is perceived with respect to social responsibility in the communities in which they operate. CSR is a multifaceted concept that involves relationships with multiple stakeholders including investors, employees, customers, and suppliers as well as with the local communities in which companies operate and society as a whole; however, it is possible and useful to review the following list of some of the common roles of CSR in community development prepared by Ismael:¹³

• Business can share in the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Description
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Strategy and Management
• Chapter 3 Community Engagement
• Chapter 4 Community Investment
• Chapter 5 Reporting
• About the Author
• Index
• Backcover