As a result of both demand and regulation, more businesses than ever are embracing transparency in operations, but that doesn’t mean that businesses are doing so efficiently. That’s important because while philanthropy should be inherently celebrated for its positive impact, CSR is often held to a higher standard by the shareholders and executives who want to see tangible proof of return on investment.

Three keys to creating value for the company by means of CSR are centrality, expertise, and visibility.

Centrality- Academic research and professional practice indicate that the more closely tied the business’s CSR program is to its core mission, or central, the more value it will provide the organization across all growth categories. By integrating social efforts with the company’s mission and vision, companies can put their brand in action and on display while contributing positively to the community.

Expertise- CSR efforts should be planned in a way that will reinforce company expertise and bolster brand identity in its core competencies. Studies show that CSR has a strong and direct impact on consumers’ attributions, brand evaluations and purchase intentions; through CSR, consumers, partners, and suppliers can see social-purpose initiatives providing reputational benefits. At the same time, companies that activate social campaigns in their core competencies benefit from economies of scale.  Shareholders and executives value programs that enable existing assets which minimizes costs and diversions to plan and carry them out, while simultaneously endearing to key audiences.

Visibility- CSR has been described as a “Catch 22” in that businesses are encouraged to perform responsibly but at the same time discouraged from over-promotion of activities. The perception is that that CSR messaging will detract from altruism and sincerity, lessening potential strategic benefits. However, visibility done correctly – by executing high-profile and high-impact campaigns – is a win for social causes, consumers, and active organizations as these initiatives attract attention and affect stakeholders naturally.

A great example of CSR integration can be seen in IBM’s Reinventing Education initiative. The company contributed financial resources, researchers, educational consultants and technology to support fundamental school restructuring and broad-based systemic change meant to raise student achievement. The campaign aligns with IBM’s mission, “Dedication to every client’s success.” “Innovation that matters, for our company and for the world.” “Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.” IBM, through this highly visible campaign, leveraged expertise and experience, providing systems solutions to educational clients to meet a broader educational challenge.

By making CSR a part of corporate strategy, companies can achieve the goal of creating both social value and corporate value. The better these organizations are at integrating CSR into their corporate strategy through centrality, expertise and visibility, the better they will do for their communities and their own brand equity.

The post The CEV of CSR: Making the Most of Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns appeared first on Fineman PR.

Latinos are quickly becoming a powerful economic force, so tailoring messaging to them should be a key marketing strategy for companies that want to reach this demographic. But simply developing a communications campaign directed at Latinos is not enough.

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Well, here at Fineman PR, we’ve been working for the last few months with an incredible group of people who are determined to do what the rest of us might think impossible, and in the process turn our discouragement into optimism.

Meet Agnieszka Winkler, David Grusky and the more than 20 other academics, practitioners and foundation heads from the U.S. and Mexico who will come together for the Mazatlán Forum 2015. For two days they will discuss radical yet practical ways to eradicate poverty once and for all.

Yes, that’s right. These people want to eliminate poverty. Period.

In developing Mazatlán Forum press releases and pitches for the U.S., Hispanic and Mexican markets, I encountered some push-back. After all, the goal seems utopian. Yet, while the objective is undeniably enormous, if you abandon for a moment any jaded assumptions about poverty, you’ll be able to see the issue from their perspective.

First, poverty is a human phenomenon, not an immutable force of nature, so if society has created it, it is within the power of human ingenuity to transform it.

Second, for the most part, we still address poverty from a 1960s “War on Poverty” perspective. However, much has been understood about poverty in the half century since then, so it is time to step back and re-examine the assumptions that led to the War on Poverty’s failure to bring about poverty’s demise.

Third, most anti-poverty efforts are designed only to alleviate local situations or to target just one aspect of a poor population’s life. The shortcoming of such approaches should be evident.

The alternative is to design plans that, while responding to local needs, are linked to regional and global strategies that will ultimately eradicate poverty once and for all, worldwide.

Finally, poverty doesn’t affect only the poor; it is a moral, social and economic problem that affects every one of us. Simply put, poverty is unacceptable and very bad business. We must stop tolerating it and treating it as inevitable. It will do us all good.

From the airplane that is taking me to Mazatlán at this very moment, I invite you to cheer for this amazing group of people – warriors, not utopians – and follow the Forum on Twitter using #MazatlanForum2015.

For my part, I’ve left my former discouragement on the ground behind me and have my hopes high – right up here with me at 35,000 feet!

Learn more about Mazatlán Forum here.

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Giving back is especially important to today’s consumers, namely millennials, who support brands and make purchasing decisions based on cause-related elements. According to a 2014 study by Web consulting company Instart Logic, at least 70 percent of millennials have purchased a product that supports a cause, and they’re more willing to pay extra for a product if it supports a cause they share.

Tom’s is one brand that has done an excellent job of building a loyal millennial following using a one-for-one-model. Giving back doesn’t have to be as complicated or costly as companies may believe. And the goodwill that is built in doing so is priceless.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and giving back, it seemed a good time to reflect on the positive impact our agency-generated programs have had on hundreds of thousands of needy individuals in the past few years alone. PR can make a HUGE difference in the lives of others. Below speaks volumes of just how much of a difference.

• Our client’s Food 4 Thought program that we developed from the ground up and brought to Stanislaus and Mercend counties has helped provide more than 3,700 Central Valley elementary students with more than 1.1 million pounds of groceries in exchange for their work in after school academic and extracurricular activities and continues to provide more than 25,000 pounds of groceries each month.
• In partnership with food banks that we forged on our client’s behalf, more than 20,036 turkeys – or roughly 363,648 pounds – have been donated to feed more than 363,648 people.
• Through the 2014 summer Pass the Plate program, which we built from the ground up with seven West Coast food banks, 7,500 people (1,875 families) received 24,000 complete chicken dinners throughout the summer.

Doing good is also ingrained in our agency culture. Several of us serve on boards of non-profits and the company supports our volunteerism in giving back to our communities. We’ve done good and we’ve helped our clients do good, and for that I am extremely proud…and thankful. Happy Thanksgiving.

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