In what has become one of the most successful corporate community projects ever, last weekend CIBC and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation raised more than $33-million through the participation of more than 175,000 people in the annual Run for the Cure. Donations rose 23 per cent and participation 3 per cent to record highs.
Very few companies have been able to generate such a national impact with their community investments, but many are trying today to give their social responsibility projects more punch as it become increasingly common for customers to ask what a business is doing for its community.
In a field defined by so many intangibles, it can be difficult for organizations to pinpoint the keys to a successful community strategy and the means to figure out at the end of the day whether they are successful investments.
In the case of CIBC, which became the title sponsor of the Run for the Cure back in 1997, the bank hadn’t set out looking for a project to support cancer research. Rather, it recognized that the run had become a passionate cause of many of its employees, and it saw an opportunity to put its brand and resources behind an existing movement.
“Too many companies try to manufacture these [community projects] for perhaps reasons more self-driven than cause-driven,” says Stephen Forbes, executive vice-president of marketing and communications for CIBC. “You have to keep the real motive in mind, and for us it has always been supporting our employees.”
Keeping it real has meant resisting all attempts, including internal ones, to attach any business development to the Run for the Cure. Seventy per cent of the bank’s staff is female, and as a sign of how passionate CIBC employees are to the breast cancer cause, more than one-quarter of the 40,000 across the country participated in the run.
“Return on investment is not only when you sell something. That’s not the only way you create value for your business,” says Stephanie Robertson, president of Simpact Strategy Group Inc. in Calgary, which helps companies maximize the value of their community investments through an evolving set of best practices. “The first questions we ask are, ‘Where are you at the start of the program, and where do you want to be? What do your employees care about, what do your customers care about, and is there any opportunity to engage them?’”
Seventeen years ago, the head of NatWest Bank in Britain walked into the office of an executive running community investment and left him with three simple, spontaneous questions: Why do we have to give the bank’s money away, how do I know you are giving it to the right people and how do we know if it’s helping the community?
The answers weren’t readily available. The bank polled six large companies and found that none of them had the right management structure to answer all the questions. So all the organizations came together to create the London Benchmarking Group to measure all aspects of community investments. Today the LBG has more than 100 corporate members, and many British companies have international reputations for leading in the area of corporate social responsibility.
In 2005, Ms. Robertson brought the LBG concept to Canada after consulting in the sector in London. LBG Canada is a network of more than two dozen companies, across industries, working to maximize the value of community investment. She points to three reasons for a company to make a community investment: commercial, social or philanthropic. And she warns that companies make a mistake by thinking that one project can give them everything they need. Instead, they should understand that a portfolio of investments will provide them a range of returns over different periods of time, much like a stock portfolio.
Between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of investments tend to be commercial in nature. Ms. Robertson cites Enbridge Inc.’s financial support for aboriginal communities near its pipeline projects and operational rights-of-way as such. Another 25 per cent are philanthropic, such as the Teddy Bear Toss at Calgary Hitmen hockey games, which supports the Rainbow Society and has been supported by local energy companies. Social projects, where a company wants to be a part of change in the community, form the largest group of between 60 per cent and 65 per cent.
