Dos and Donts of CSR

Team Name

MAVERICKS

Team Members 1. SHASHANK JAIN (91)

2. SIMRAN SINGH VOHRA
& Roll Nos.
(95)
3. AYUSH KUMAR (60)
4. NAVDEEP SEHRAWAT
(77)

Dos
Know the audience: The basic step in CSR. The most common reason that CSR initiatives at events fail is
because the organizers failed to think about their audience and their preferences. When selecting a program
or activity, you need to put yourself in your attendees shoes. What would they want to participate in? What
motivates them? What is meaningful for them thats also meaningful for your event? A clear example is HULs
CSR initiative in the rural areas where they have made locals as representatives of their products.
Make sure the corporate responsibility strategy is based on sound research and tied to business objectives.
The company should build CSR into the business and marketing strategies. Ensure that partners are right for
the business and the message is clear. ITC came up with the E-CHOUPAL program that served their objective
of sourcing quality raw materials from the villages and tied it successfully to their CSR initiatives.
The initiative should seek support of leadership and identify company leaders as spokespeople and owners
for the corporate responsibility programs.
The corporate culture should support the corporate responsibility efforts, and involve employees in programs.
What you say you will do, do it well and consistently. Whether it is a new initiative for the employees, helping a
local charity, improving recycling or a cycle to work campaign. Reliance Industries Ltd. regularly involves their
employees in a voluntary CSR drive where in their employees take English speaking classes for the underprivileged people in the nearby areas.
The programs vision and mission should be clearly articulated, and it should be make sure that the approach
is highlyfocused and differentiates the company from its peers and competitors. Tata Steels statement WE
ALSO MAKE STEEL is a golden example through which they state that their main motive is to serve the
society through their business.
The initiative should gain PR, but for positive impact; to raise awareness for a certain cause, generate interest
in a charity etc. Do things for the right reason and not to just self-promote.
Plan, share ideas, gain feed-back, and find some partners. As with everything, the CSR ideas will work better if

Donts
Do not use CSR for window dressing. If the business is using unethical practices it could never be offset by
CSR no matter how noble the intention. For instance, Starbucks is a company acknowledged widely for its
CSR initiatives. However it was recently claimed that Starbuckshad a hand in the Ethiopian governments
recently failed attempt to trademark two of the nations coffee bean names, Harar and Sidamo which
could have raised revenues for the local farmers and prices for the company. It maligned their image
greatly.
Do not think you will always gain support initially and your CSR initiatives will suddenly be implemented.
It is not easy to set a CSR rolling.
Do not expect immediate success. It takes a lot of time before CSR activities actually create an impact.
Dow Chemicalreduced its energy intensity by 40 percent for a cost savings of $24 billion, but it took
them 22 years to accomplish that feat.
Do not attach corporate giving to a consumer purchase.
Do not brag. No corporation brags about their top line and bottom-line and so CSR shouldnt be treated
any different either. Environmental and social contributions should be kept low key.
Do not think of CSR as a marketing tool. CSR can generate positive reviews and garner attraction from
public but marketing should not be the driving factor as it may backfire. Do not do it just for the PR, it
could back fire.
Do not think CSR is just about donating money. Donate time, resource, goods and your services to the
causes you want to support.
Do not think CSR is just about giving money.
Do not hide things. If you do something wrong, dont hide it. Share and illustrate why and how you have
put things right.