Rafael Nunez Aponte: Volunteering Programs and Its Benefits

Volunteering for more benefits for everyone

What is the meaning of volunteering programs? Do you think its impact goes beyond the benefit of a brand or company? Is that impact only related to the members of the communities involved or companies responsible for the activities can also be benefited? There are more information and good results related to volunteerism than we think. That is why, today we brought details about it; you will learn more about each aspect in order to know how your company or brand can also be benefited thanks to volunteering programs for the community your company operates.

Communities are not the only part of the society that can receive a benefit (economic, educational, regarding to health, etc.), but also your brand or company as well as all your work team as a whole. Workers and employees in general are the main responsible for these activities and the ones that will receive the best benefits.

Employee engagement

Corporate volunteer activities, projects or programs can drive employee engagement. This means that companies that promote corporate volunteer programs can enjoy greater employee satisfaction and greater productivity and profitability.

Younger employees

Extending the help

Young population just coming out of college for the last several years is committed to changing the world for a better place to work and live. This is very different from the traditional or older models where benefits were almost the only variables that potential employees were interested in.

Corporate visibility

Giving does not mean there will not be clear financial incentives for the company at the same time. A perfect design and created and a corporate volunteer program that promotes employees skills can raise a company’s visibility in the community. As you may know, all this can improve your company’s reputation.

Younger employees 

However, those three previous benefits are not everything a company can earn through volunteering programs. The following are also some positive aspects your company will enjoy:

a.       Employee development.

b.      Encouraging teamwork

c.       Improved communication.

d.      Building brand awareness.

e.       Improved employee retention.

f.       Providing subject matter for corporate content creation.

What to Learn about Volunteering

Consider your employees to improve

While monetary donations and donated products or services can have a great impact on a worthy cause, many charities and nonprofits have actually noted that corporate volunteer programs have a huge value in the long run. Do you want to know why or how? This has to be with the increasing employee engagement, improving the ability to recruit younger employees, and increasing the company’s visibility in the community. Our today’s post is dedicated to this great way of making social committed activities. You will learn more about each aspect in order to know how your company or brand can also be benefited thanks to volunteering programs for the community your company operates:

Employee engagement

Corporate volunteer activities, projects or programs can drive employee engagement. This means that companies that promote corporate volunteer programs can enjoy greater employee satisfaction and greater productivity and profitability.

Younger employees

Involved employees

Young population just coming out of college for the last several years is committed to changing the world for a better place to work and live. This is very different from the traditional or older models where benefits were almost the only variables that potential employees were interested in.

Corporate visibility

Giving does not mean there will not be clear financial incentives for the company at the same time. A perfect design and created and a corporate volunteer program that promotes employees skills can raise a company’s visibility in the community. As you may know, all this can improve your company’s reputation.

Positive image

However, those three previous benefits are not everything your company or brand can earn through volunteering programs. The following are also some positive aspects your company will enjoy:

• Employee development.
• Encouraging teamwork
• Improved communication.
• Building brand awareness.
• Improved employee retention.



Everyone's invited to participate

• Providing subject matter for corporate content creation.

Rafael Nunez Aponte: What to Learn About CSR Campaigns

Thinking about sustainability and hard work

Corporate social responsibility is a term that an individual and a company has to perform to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems. A trade-off can exist between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the society and environment. Social Responsibility is about giving back to the communities that keep your business in a good position, maybe even ones beyond your reach. Having a social commitment and good culture allow employees to know they are working for something that is good and with a high impact. Business becomes something far from dimensional and more importantly, it cares about people.

As you already have noticed, we like to show you different great references and examples of what means to be a very responsible company or brand. We do this for you to have the best examples and know how to act when creating your brand or company’s CSR campaign:

Social commitment

1. The Promise of Healthcare is one of the tasks created and developed by Johnson & Johnson regarding their CSR activities. The company believes the best healthcare systems put the needs of people first.
2. Forever 21 Vendor Audit Program. While many of the brand’s vendors have worked with Forever 21 for a number of years and are trusted, all suppliers and vendors must provide factory contact information and all factories must participate in the audit program as part of the company’s CSR actions.

And, of course, never forget that you have to promote all the effort. Brands, with their big advertising budgets, have a big opportunity to educate consumers about important causes and issues and the nonprofit organizations that are making a difference. The tip for businesses is to distinguish the cause area they are impacting, the charity with which they are collaborating, and the tangible, measurable impact that is being made.

Considering the people and your business

What Considerations We Take about CSR

Actions to take for CSR programs

As we all know, when thinking about creating social programs or corporate social responsibility campaigns, we have to consider more than simply measuring our positive image or reputation on the market and the society.  This topic is more important than you may think and it is present in almost every committed company or individual with a deep sense and interest on social issues and needs of the different communities where the companies are operating.

Corporate social responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that any entity - an organization or individual - has the responsibility to act for the benefit of society in different aspects: economy, technological development, education, environment, etc. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems.

About the concept

Covering every aspect

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time.  The concept of corporate social responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law.

History

The concept of CSR is relatively new - the phrase has only been in wide use since the 1960s. But, while the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations placed on organizations may differ, it is probably accurate to say that all societies at all points in time have had some degree of expectation that organizations would act responsibly, by some definition.

CSR

Today, the International Organization for Standardization  has the responsibility to encourage voluntary commitment to social responsibility and will lead to common guidance on concepts, definitions and methods of evaluation. The standard describes itself as a guide for dialogue and language, not a constraining or certifiable management standard.

Improving the World

Rafael Nunez Aponte: Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns with Creativity

Think with creativity

There is no secret on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility for companies or brands: having great and powerful campaigns will attract more customers to you! Those campaigns have to be carefully thought with respect, commitment and, of course, creativity. Today, we have brought to you little examples of great campaigns developed by famous companies in order to have more presence in the global society.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means companies aligning their values with a greater good and taking action to have a positive effect on the people and the environment. They often do so through cause marketing, joining forces with nonprofit organizations and focusing ad campaigns on those philanthropic relationships.

Design catching ideas

CSR unforgettable campaigns are everywhere in your daily activities, from Pepsi Refresh giving away millions for ideas for improving the world to Tide sending a mobile fleet of washers and dryer to areas hit by natural disasters. Why are more companies than ever flaunting their good works this way? It could be because they realize that their employees want to be part of a business that does more than just make money.

Other example

We can also consider the recent collaboration between The Central Bank and the Gallery of Photography. This work creates a single image. In a stunning series of pictures, Michael Durand used images of staff together with shredded banknotes to provide a great meaning to the actual monetary value that society has assigned to certain functions: from recycling to charitable donations to reality TV shows.

The image shows a staff member sitting at a desk with a little pile of notes showing the average annual donation to charity per person in Ireland, set with a photograph of another employee in a car park next to a great volume of shredded notes which represent the value of a Mercedes Benz Maybach. A super great and visual promotion.

Creativity

Rafael Nunez Aponte: Considerations on CSR Campaigns

Report, communicate, inform

Everyday, we see a lot more mistakes than correct actions when it comes to corporate sustainability communications and campaigns. Today, we have brought for you a list of 3 common mistakes your company might be making with its CSR communications and how to fix them.

1. Communicating separately from operation itself

There is a term for the case where your communication message is not backed up or supported by the actions of other departments: “greenwashing.” When a communications team runs around telling stories about the great things a company does about environment and the planet without really be doing anything real, bad things can happen.

Work for your expectations and communicate your plans

2. When something good is happening and you want to keep it secret

Maybe you do not think about this, but most of times when you run into sustainability professionals and specialists, you probably hear a lot of great and exciting stories about the projects they are working on. People out there will appreciate the transparency. Even if it is not perfect, it is always good to start showing what your company is capable of in terms of CSR.

3. Always avoiding negative aspects?

You do not have idea of how many CSR communications focus on the positive; that is probably great, however, it is also important to be honest when things are not going the way you always wanted. Try reporting your activities, good or bad results, inform the people, otherwise, it is hard to believe you about the good things.

Good tips for your brand

What You Should Consider For Your CSR Campaign

CSR

A recent survey from insurer Aflac shows us the great importance and impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on the younger generation of people –people who was born in the late 80’s. - Two-thirds of this generation surveyed said that they are likely to invest in a company well-known for its corporate social responsibility program, compared with less than half of adults over 34.

For brands and companies the message is more than clear: If you want to attract Generation Y, build a reputation for supporting social causes and initiatives.

Here we brought you 3 ways brands can build meaningful CSR programs that have a real impact on consumers:

CSR programs

Donating has to be really easy: you do not have idea about how powerful can be a social good campaign based around simple and little actions - sending a text message, for example. – There are donation apps such as The Red Cross'text-to-donate that was created after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which can be taken as a great reference of a good campaign.

You have to promote all the effort: brands, with their big advertising budgets, have a big opportunity to educate consumers about important causes and issues and the nonprofit organizations that are making a difference. The tip for businesses is to distinguish the cause area they are impacting, the charity with which they are collaborating, and the tangible, measurable impact that is being made.

See the concern and turn it into action: we normally see news stories that describe a problem or crisis. We feel compassion, but we have no idea on how to contribute to the solution. This is the moment that brands have a unique opportunity to connect with consumers.