Broadening CSR efforts through cooperation among corporates

By Janaka Boteju 

Today more and more corporates are getting into CSR initiatives as it has become an integral part of many business enterprises. This trend is absolutely favourable to the society that we live and particularly for underprivileged communities. 

It is also a very interesting to note that many stakeholders perceive the CSR initiatives of corporates as positive actions. This attitude really encourages corporates to look at CSR more optimistically than ever before. The enthusiasm of the corporates towards CSR is evident by the increasing number of new initiatives launched by corporates every day.

Through my long association with CSR activities, I am of the opinion that we can broaden the efforts of the CSR activities through greater cooperation among corporates themselves. I am sure that this could not have been possible many years ago given the CSR policies of the country at the initial stages. However now most of our corporates and management teams are more experienced in CSR to think beyond the norm to bring more benefits to society as a whole. 

I started thinking about this point as a long time ago I managed to successfully negotiate with a State bank to modify the terms of opening a savings accounts for a group of children who were receiving financial assistance for education under a CSR initiative. In this exercise the bank did not play a very active role other than agreeing to modify some of their operating terms, enabling children to operate their accounts and withdraw money. However it made a huge difference by benefitting those children immensely. 

Firstly children got an opportunity use the money they received specifically for the purpose of education as earlier the money was sent to their parents’ name and some parents used to spend the money for other household needs. Secondly, most of the beneficiary children inculcated a habit of saving by not utilising the entire amount they received. For the money they saved they received an interest as well, making their net gain more than what they actually got from the sponsor. This is a simple example to show how cooperation among corporates can create greater social-economic value for beneficiaries and society. 

I feel the potential for greater cooperation among corporates is enormous in the field of CSR; especially corporates which are in the field of manufacturing and marketing non-competitive goods or services can easily explore this opportunity. 

For instance, many corporates under their CSR initiatives donate buildings ranging from school classrooms to community centres. Can’t the cement manufacturing or importing companies provide cement for these projects at a concessionary price if not free? Of course their initiatives should be compensated with co-branding or offering some reasonable mileage. I am sure cement companies have their more elaborative CSR programs but this way they can contribute more towards the country’s CSR efforts. 

IT companies can partner with the companies which donate computer labs, etc. to schools as a CSR initiative. Arrangements should be made to get mileage for both parties while greater benefit goes to the beneficiaries. 

Some of the mobile companies may have a wealth of not-so-sensitive information about demographics of people, which could be shared with other corporates which are interested in using them for planning CSR projects.

Media may partner with other corporates by sharing information they get and publicise. Media, both electronic and print, almost every day highlight unattended common needs of our rural communities and most of these needs fall under CSR activities carried out by many corporates. As I know some corporates do not easily get information about the deserving needs of communities to provide solutions through their respective CSR initiatives.

The media can feed the information they get to those corporates in an attempt to bridge the information gap. This would ensure the fulfilment of the needs of the communities instead of just carrying the story in their respective media as a news item. Alternatively the interested corporates can have an arrangement with the selected media to refer information regularly on the needs of community for specific projects that corporates wish to do. These are only a few examples of possible cooperation among corporates in the field of CSR. To enhance the exercise of ‘cooperation among corporates for CSR,’ there should be a suitable platform which can be used to facilitate corporation, interaction and the exchange of information among corporates. I am sure institutions like chambers and other professional bodies can play a pivotal role in this regard. The ultimate objective is to bring more benefits to the community through maximum utilisation of scarce resources.

(The writer can be contacted via [email protected].)