​What societal causes should our CSR focus on?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can focus on many different issues. How might CSR practitioners choose whether to address hunger, environmental degradation or disaster response, for example? To maximize the impact of its CSR on both society and the business, companies should pursue causes that are close to the business. CSR practitioners can identify these causes through what is called a “materiality assessment.” A materiality assessment identifies issues that meet all three of the following criteria (ideally via conversations, surveys and other data collection efforts):

1. Company stakeholders care about the issue. The best CSR focuses on what employees and customers especially – but also investors, suppliers and other key stakeholders – find of interest.
2. Supporting the issue also support business performance. If CSR is altruistic, then it’s a business cost. Because costs undermine profitability, altruistic CSR will necessarily remain small in scale. For CSR programs to grow to a meaningful size, they need to serve the business.
3. The business is in a strong position to support the issue. Companies have many resources – including expertise, real estate, equipment, connections and product – that make them especially effective at supporting certain societal causes. Effective CSR leverages these resources for good.

An example of CSR that meets the above three criteria is the Denver Community Credit Union, a Civic 50 Colorado Honoree. The Credit Union established a Clear Money Program to provide free financial education classes and coaching that are open to the public as a service to the community, as well as train-the-trainer workshops for nonprofits, schools, municipal agencies, and local businesses. It also trains employees to become certified Financial Coaching Experts to educate people about how to reach their financial goals. Financial literacy is a concern for both Denver Community Credit Union employees and customers. It, thus, meets criteria #1. Higher financial literacy leads to higher savings and investments and, thus, boosts business. Thus, it also meets criteria #2. Finally, the Credit Union has the expertise, online platform and other assets to offer effective financial literacy training. Thus, financial literacy meets criteria #3 as well.

​Interested in conducting your own materiality assessment? The Quick Materiality Assessment tool offered by our national partner, Points of Light, will help.