Corporate Citizenship & Philanthropy Briefs

Are your social impact measurement efforts providing useful results? If not, it might be time to up your game. Moody's reinvented its CSR approach to mirror the company’s global footprint, be authentic to its culture, and align with its businesses. In doing so, the company engaged the Impact Genome Project to assess the Moody’s Foundation’s grant portfolio for alignment with its focus areas.

Are nonprofits—a crucial economic sector—getting the support they need to flourish? According to Independent Sector, there are over 1.6 million tax exempt nonprofit organizations in the United States—the third largest workforce in the country behind retail and manufacturing. Yet, the nonprofit sector is critically understaffed, under-capitalized, and overwhelmed. It needs support to fulfill its vital mission.

Do you have a firm grasp of the outcomes your societal investments are achieving, or are you still counting inputs and outputs? New research from The Conference Board, in collaboration with the Impact Genome Project and supported by Moody's, uses standardized metrics to measure social outcomes, enabling companies to more effectively report and benchmark the performance of their societal investments. Being able to compare social outcomes helps companies make smarter societal investments.

How does one of India's largest conglomerates, operating around the world, take care of citizens in its immediate community? The Aditya Birla Group has developed a model village in the neighborhood surrounding its Ultra Tech Cement Works Plant in Kotputli, providing vital facilities and infrastructure to residents, including education for women and children, a medical clinic, a farming program, and clean, fresh water.

Are you giving your grantees the right attention to help them succeed long term? To advance effective philanthropy, grantmakers must be as concerned with the entire grantee workforce as they are with grantee leadership. That means looking at the nonprofit through a workforce rather than a leadership lens and building relationships across the organization through surveys, site visits, and one-on-one conversations.

Is the philanthropy industry on its way to solving its diversity and inclusion problem? New research from the Women's Philanthropy institute identifies ways that donors differ across race and ways they appear to behave in a relatively similar fashion, pointing to the fact that philanthropy is growing more aware of its diversity and funders and nonprofits would do well to find ways to maximize engagement with donors of all backgrounds.

What do you think of when you hear "Los Angeles"? For many, it's Hollywood, beaches, and palm trees. But the booming metropolis faces a large homeless population, is on the frontline of the immigration issue, and has a troubled school district and aging infrastructure. Companies can help solve some of these issues by collaborating with the local government and nonprofits delivering innovative solutions.

India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, which requires companies with a net worth above Rs 5 billion, revenues above Rs 10 billion, or net profits of Rs 50 million or more to spend 2 percent of net profits on CSR initiatives. The country has countless priorities that companies can look to for guidance on CSR initiatives.

The term “natural disaster” is a misnomer. Natural ecosystems often require disturbances such as fires and floods to remain healthy. They have an inherent resilience to the occasional battering. Crises created by destructive natural events might be more aptly referred to as “social disasters,” because of the toll of life and economic damage left in their wake. Framing such events as social disasters places them in a different light, shifting the burden on all sectors of society to proactively ma

The Conference Board has launched an expanded initiative to track and benchmark societal investments, and their resulting impact, extending the organization’s 75 years of leadership in corporate citizenship research.