Corporate Volunteering and Charitable Giving

"A company can only get a reasonable return after fulfilling its social role and social responsibility." This is Hitachi High Technologies' stance on corporate social responsibility. This is also the common aspiration of many companies in the world who regard corporate social responsibility not only as a business behavior, but also as a way of life.

Corporate social responsibility has become a global phenomenon.

30 years ago, less than half of the Fortune 500 companies mentioned corporate social responsibility in their annual reports. By the end of the 1990s, nearly 90% of enterprises regarded social responsibility as an element of their organizational goals, and actively promoted various measures related to social responsibility in their annual reports.

The change was so dramatic that, as General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt declared, "the world has changed." Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina also noted that "a new reality in the business world" has arrived.

Strategist Michael Porter has such a brilliant statement on social responsibility: "Any business that develops at the expense of the society on which it depends, then any success it achieves will become A mirage."

How well are Chinese companies doing this? Are they as committed to social responsibility as other companies around the world?

Some people think it's too early to talk about social responsibility for Chinese companies, because most companies are still in the early stages of technology development.

This view is not shared by everyone. Gary Dirks, president of BP China, pointed out that corporate social responsibility is not as simple as "charitable acts", it also includes many fundamental issues related to corporate profitability. Therefore, CSR should be part of a company's business model from the start, not something that comes to mind later.

Pressure from reality does exist. Bi Jingquan, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a speech in June this year that the government plans to significantly increase the pollution charges and that "China must fully establish a 'polluter pays' system".

However, corporate social responsibility is not just about business costs. The experience of other businesses around the world continues to prove that being socially responsible also means making a profit for the business. Christine Arena pointed out in her book The High-Purpose Company that more and more companies are implementing corporate social responsibility not just to make themselves feel better, but more Planning for the long-term strategic development of the company.

She cited three companies that are betting their business development on environmental and social responsibility goals. GE is banking on its goal of doubling its revenue to $20 billion by 2010 through its Greenmagination program and clean technology. Toyota launched its Prius line of sedans in Japan a decade ago and hopes to sell millions of hybrids and sport-utility vehicles worldwide by 2010. Wegmans Food Markets, which receives 130,000 cover letters every year, has created a very friendly corporate culture for its employees; Save a lot of costs.

These companies are role models to learn from, and they show you different ways to take social responsibility. The corporate social responsibility pursued by these companies can be explained through the following five aspects:

1. Volunteering and charitable donations

2. Efficient use of energy

3. Development and sales of environmentally friendly products

4. Contribute to the well-being of the community around you

5. Be accountable to employees

Volunteering and charitable giving

The Body Shop is one of the companies that has embraced corporate social responsibility since its inception . Its founder, Anita Roddick, has an unusual entrepreneurial saga, successfully opening more than 600 cosmetic stores in 38 countries, while also actively engaging in environmental protection and social responsibility activities.

Over the years, there have been voices questioning the corporate social responsibility pursued by The Body Shop, but the spirit of charitable giving that The Body Shop has instilled in its employees has never been doubted.

The Body Shop has donated £100,000 to tsunami-stricken areas in Asia and supports organisations working on HIV treatment, human rights, environmental and animal protection, and many other areas.

The Body Shop urges employees to volunteer in support of charitable activities. In fact, the company considers volunteering more important than charitable giving. Donating funds to the affected people is only a stopgap measure because the problem has not been fundamentally solved. "Charitable giving is only a small part of The Body Shop's business; values are more important and effective," says a company manager.

FedEx also places great emphasis on building values, with thousands of employees volunteering for charitable organizations each year. These volunteer hours amount to 200,000 hours, according to Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee in their book Corporate Social Responsibility. And the impact on employee values is incalculable. A veteran FedEx service agent said the experience of volunteering "completely changed me—I'm not who I used to be".

In China, there are many philanthropic businesses like The Body Shop and FedEx. According to a survey conducted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in Shanghai earlier this year, 92.5% of the companies surveyed had donated cash, in kind or services in the past year, which accounted for 0.4% of the total sales revenue of the donating companies. The survey results show that the total amount of donations from Chinese enterprises reaches hundreds of millions of yuan every year.

Where does the donated money go? Among Shanghai donors, 57% donate to poverty alleviation, 32% donate to social welfare, and 23% donate to education.

Next, these companies will, like FedEx and The Body Shop, go beyond short-term behaviors like donations and focus on cultivating corporate and employee values.

The author Jet Magsaysay is a consultant for "CEConline" magazine, translated by Wei Li.