Imagine it’s the year 2014. What changes are impacting your corporate social responsibility department at the global level? National level? Regional level? What steps will your organization need to implement to address these changes? How will these changes impact the audiences you serve? Your company’s mission and vision? Your budget?

Best answer will receive one free pass to Day 1 of New Models of Social Responsibility, Nov. 5: http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=377&full=1

Q.1

If you could build the most successful CSR program for your organization, what it would look like? Whom would it reach? What goals would you seek to accomplish? To build support for your program, name three ways you would engage senior leadership in championing its advocacy and support by 2010.

Best answer will receive one free pass to Day 1 of New Models of Social Responsibility, Nov. 5: http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=377&full=1

apparently mainstream coverage of the corporate social responsibility movement is not yet an idea whose time has come in the minds of our media's editors and producers.

Chucking a few dollars at the pet charity of the chairman's wife no longer cuts it as corporate philanthropy, if it ever did. Nor does using corporate philanthropy as PR or window dressing to mollify critics, or even roping off a slice of profits to be dispensed for good works.

The definition of a company and its involvement in wider society is expanding, as is the expectations of shareholders, employees and consumers. Traditional corporate social responsibility is starting to be replaced with a new notion of corporate citizenship, which for larger companies means global corporate citizenship.

The social and corporate agenda is being integrated, and often involves partnership with other companies, government and nongovernmental organizations--which is a challenge to those who hold to the traditional narrow economic definition of a company as an entity that is meant to maximize profits for shareholders.

John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ) and a poster child for corporate citizenship through Cisco's backing of the training of hundreds of thousands of engineers a year in developing economies, has no truck with that point of view. "The most successful in life have an obligation to give back. And it is not just the right thing to do; it is just plain good business," he says.

Though a year old, the CSR overview in this article still rings true. Cisco, by the way, is the technology sponsor for the NEW MODELS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A GLOBAL VIRTUAL SUMMIT. You can access the Summit either online through WebEx or live at one of 9 locations globally with Cisco TelePresence. http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=377&full=1

There seems to be a pervading sense in many CSR circles that there is now business consensus about the most pressing issues in our global society, taking their cues from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Global Compact and other such frameworks. While many of the issues remain difficult to deal with in practice, companies are credited with putting strategies in place for tackling them. Everything, they argue, is going according to plan; hence, there is no need for anything more dramatic, especially not legislation to enforce improved performance. Or is there?

There is another perspective, which enjoys far less air time. A perspective that says the world is in a deepening crisis of alarming proportions and that the private sector’s response, under the guise of CSR, is as effective as placing a band aid on the foot of someone who is haemorrhaging from a head wound. This alternative perspective, radical as it sounds, nevertheless seems to be confirmed by just about every available statistic on the ecological and social health of our global society.

The question then becomes: is CSR, as it is currently being preached and practiced by multinational corporations around the world, actually a red herring? Is it a distraction from the more fundamental transformation (perhaps revolution even) of the capitalist business model which is needed? And as CSR becomes an established professional practice, will it take as given that its purpose is to benefit those who employ its professionals, rather than a primary goal of transforming the world?

If so, CSR will have contributed towards a global ‘Crash and Burn’ scenario, with growing ecological and social degradation.

Extracted from “The Corporate Responsibility Movement” (2009) by Bendell, Visser, et al.

Wayne Visser is Founder and CEO of CSR International and the author/editor of six books, including five on the role of business in society, the most recent of which are Making A Difference and The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility.

CSR International is a media sponsor of NEW MODELS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A GLOBAL VIRTUAL SUMMIT, Nov. 5 and 9, 2009. Register at www.communitelligence.com.

This bi-annual report is a more comprehensive compliment to our quarterly reporting efforts , and is designed to create a two-way dialogue for collecting feedback about our CSR initiatives.   Readers are invited to share their feedback and ideas for improvement through the "Voices of Challenge " — a dynamic online forum created to engage thought leaders, practitioners, NGOs, investors, students and consumers on specific CSR challenges facing the business community.  To jumpstart the online dialogue, we’ve invited thought leaders like Bill McKibben , Joel Makower , Li Qiang and New York City Mayor Bloomberg to weigh in.

Jeffrey Swartz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Timberland Company is doing the NEW MODELS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY opening keynote at 8:05-8:45, Nov. 5.

His topic: MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN AN UNCERTAIN AGE .

Registration information at http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=377&full=1

Released today by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute, the index shows the Walt Disney Company in the top position followed by Microsoft, Google, Honda of America, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo., General Mills, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup Company and FedEx, rounding out the top 10. See full list.

This news release caught our eye as one of our speakers at the November NEW MODELS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY conference (Nov 5 & 9) is Cheryl Kiser, Managing Director, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. She is moderating the panel: END OF THE GLOSSY REPORT? THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION AND REPORTING on Nov. 9.

Details at http://www.communitelligence.com/content/ahpg.cfm?spgid=377&full=1

Social Responsibility reporting and outreach needs to become more honest, more entertaining, more engaging and embedded in a broader communications strategy. How some organizations are beginning this journey that includes new media channels.

the worst thing for supporters of corporate social responsibility is to float one's view in an inherently leaky boat.

Love this quote from CSR blogger Marshall Chase.

Tim Sanders, author of the book "Saving the World at Work," argues that social responsibility should be viewed as a corporate opportunity. Here's why.

Corporate social responsibility is a hybrid PR/branding program that attempts to convert compliance into goodwill. Often CSR lives outside the marketing function, somewhere deep in the bowels of legal or operations. Once a year, the company's varied social achievements are collected by the investor relations department for the now-compulsory CSR addendum to the annual report.

CSR attempts to align corporate needs (profits, revenue, growth) with social needs (people, community, planet). Themes such as "we're being less bad" or "we're trying to give back" dominate the subtext and water down the potential marketing value of the exercise. In the end, CSR is a compulsory exercise designed to limit liability, boost morale and add to the branding story of the company.

From 2003 to 2008, CSR grew along with other nice-to-haves such as corporate meetings, green buildings and skunkworks programs. When the recession slammed the economy last fall, only the profit center programs survived. As a movement, CSR is either dead or on life support.

 

Timberland and Internet start-up Changents.com are pioneering a social media experience around a new generation of “indie” environmental change agents. Earthkeeper Heroes ’09 combines Timberland’s clout with the Changents Web 2.0 platform to connect adventuresome up-and-comers changing the world with people around the globe who can help them.  It’s about a movement toward sustainable environmental change, led by fresh faces on the cusp of some of the world’s most innovative eco-changing projects.

 

The 2009 Earthkeeper Heroes include a photoactivist, a green "trendspotter," a long distance swimmer, community-greening social entrepreneurs and a pair of eco-designers —each channeling their personal passion for the planet to create positive impact, from the New England coast to the streets of New York to the urban forests of London. Timberland’s objective is to “break” these individuals onto the global environmental scene through social media and other consumer touch-points, including live events and in-store engagement

Jeffrey Swartz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Timberland Company is the opening keynote for New Models of Social Responsibility virtual summit Nov. 5 and Nov 9, 2009.