What Should Be On A Company Web Site Re: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

This page, and all the pages in this section of my web site, are based on my philosophy about CSR, which is quite different than the advice of other consultants.

If your company has an employee volunteering program, gives grants to nonprofits, sponsors tables or banners at nonprofit events, or engages in any other corporate social responsibility (CSR)/corporate philanthropy activities, your organization should have at least a page that highlights those activities. Even better, you should have an entire section of your web site detailing such.

Members of the public, local officials, members of the press, activists, mission-based organizations (nonprofits, schools, charities, etc.) and even a company's own employees will want to be able to access information online about a CSR activities. That company's web site needs to cater to the information needs of each of these different groups. Having CSR information on a company's web site not only helps communicate to people outside the company: it also helps a business's employees to understand that company's CSR activities. Remember that ALL employees and consultants are potential messengers regarding a business's CSR activities - they need to have a reliable reference point when friends, family and others ask them questions about their company. Having this information on the company web site ensures that there is a uniform message regarding CSR activities.

In addition, it's unfair for your company to pressure nonprofits it supports to have certain information on its website, in the name of transparency, but not model that behavior with your own web site regarding your CSR activities.

The link to a company's CSR information can be on its home page, but most companies put the link on their "About Us" page.

Here's what absolutely needs to be on a company's web site regarding its CSR activities:

A statement that provides an overview of the company's CSR policy, especially with regards to its commitment to a particular cause or the community where employees work, send their children to school, etc.
An overview of what the company's employees do as volunteers and how employee volunteering activities are structured (do they volunteer during company hours, as part of an official program or are employees encouraged to volunteer outside of work hours, but entirely independently? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do together? Is the company looking for volunteering opportunities that groups of employee volunteers can do with their families?).
Information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can invite a company's employees to volunteer with them.
An overview of how the company makes financial or in-kind donations, including sponsorships, and information on how a nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO), school or other initiative can apply for funds for financial and in-kind donations and sponsorships. If the company does not make financial or in-kind donations, nor purchase sponsorships, it should say so explicitly on its web site.
An overview of the financial contributions they company and employees make to the community - not just in donations, not just employee donation matching, but in tax payments to city, county, state and federal treasuries through tax payments.
Anything the company requires on the web sites of organizations it funds.

What can also be on a company's web site regarding CSR activities:

An overview of what the company does to be a good to the environment. Does the company recycle materials that employees produce in the workplace? Does the company use recycled materials in its workplace? Does the company recycle all of its old computers, printers, smart phones and other electronics in an environmentally-appropriate way? Does the company have programs that encourage employees to carpool and use mass transit?
An overview of the company's commitment to ethical business practices such as fair hiring, pay equality, safe working environments, adhering to fiduciary responsibilities, having an employee handbook with policies regarding harassment and discrimination, etc. If "corporations are people," then this information is a must.
A statement of the company's commitment to having an accessible web site, one that meets at least the basic guidelines for digital inclusion (videos are captions, people who have sight-impairments can navigate the web site because its been designed so that their assistive technology tools can navigate it, etc.).
Photos, videos and other updates about the company's CSR activities.
Evaluations of the company's CSR programs and their impact. What difference has employee volunteering made for nonprofits? Remember, that doesn't mean a number of hours or a dollar value for those hours - it means how nonprofit clients or the community actually benefited from the time and talent.

It's a good idea to invite representatives from nonprofits, charities and schools to provide feedback about a company's online information about CSR activities. Can they find what they are looking for? Did they understand how to apply for funds - or understand that the company does not give financial donations? This can be done with a focus group or by simply offering a feedback form on the web site.

Look at the site's web analytics regularly to make sure online CSR information is being viewed and to see how web visitors are being directed to this information. Are they finding it using keywords in a search engine? From links from a certain page on the web site? Links from a nonprofit blog?

Return to my index of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) resources & advice for ethics, strategies & operations.

I'm Jayne Cravens. I'm a consultant regarding communications and community engagement, primarily for nonprofits, NGOs and other mission-based organizations. I have many years of experience working with corporations, governments, foundations and other donors, and for two years, I ran a corporate philanthropy program at a Fortune 500 company. I created these corporate social responsibility (CSR) pages on my web site out of frustration of the continuing disconnect between what mission-based organizations, including schools, are trying to accomplish and what corporations and other businesses want to fund and volunteer for. Most advice for CSR comes from people in the for-profit world who have never worked for a nonprofit, charity, public school, etc., and often has a paternal approach to working with mission-based organizations. My approach is different: I am urging the business world to be partners, not dictators, when it comes to the third sector.

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What Should Be On A Company Web Site Corporate Social Responsibility

What Should Be On A Company Web Site
Corporate Social Responsibility