New corporate community investment research

New corporate community investment research

News

A new report from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has found that corporate community investment (CCI) is becoming increasingly tied to business strategy and corporate governance.  The report also highlights a number of business benefits of CCI, such as greater trust by stakeholders, more robust risk management, increased employee motivation, as well as improved innovation and competitive advantage. 

The role of stakeholder engagement in corporate community investment is a qualitative study, undertaken by the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University, and is based on interviews with 12 companies, including BT, Lloyds TSB, GlaxoSmithKline, Marks & Spencer and British Airways.  It concludes, “Stakeholder engagement in CCI offers valuable opportunities for organisational learning both about CCI and target issues, and about responsible business more broadly.”

The full report is freely downloadable from CAF’s website.  

Separately, CAF recently announced the winners of its Companies and Communities Awards 2007.  Barclays scooped both awards: it won the Effective Stakeholder Engagement award for its ‘Charity begins at work’ programme, and the Effective Company Giving award for its community investment programme ‘Banking on brighter futures’.  Read more on CAF’s website.