As the CSR space evolves in India, I have had a ringside view to trends including, increased focus on compliance and reporting, closer alignment of Corporates’ ESG & CSR, and employee volunteering intertwining with CSR initiatives. While some of these trends are debatable, there is one positive emerging trend – CEOs’ personal attention to CSR.
Until very recently, CSR was largely driven by the CSR committee and led by the CSR Head, as mandated by the CSR law and because it was a “mandatory” activity for a Corporate organisation. This textbook narrative is quickly flipping. In most of my meetings with Corporates, both large and small, I have noticed CEOs, Country Heads, and the likes turning up for meetings with a fair understanding of the projects being undertaken by their organisation’s CSR grants. Their queries are pertinent and can even catch one off guard.
In a pleasant turn of events, leadership teams of a few long-term donors have requested us to provide them with a document that encapsulates the programs, impact, and sustainability of all their projects over a 5+ year period. It’s a story for another day as to how the sharp folks at United Way of Bengaluru predicted such an ask. The preparation of a “Journey Document” for the partners was a journey indeed. It tested the processes in place to capture and retain data and stories from the field over a significant period. This activity also demonstrated the need to have systems and processes in place to defy the attrition of people and still capture the story authentically. With accessible technology and shrinking attention spans, it was a fun exercise for our team, spanning functions such as Operations, Monitoring & Evaluation, Corporate Relations, Marketing & Communications, and others, to condense projects over a long horizon into a structured, easily consumable narrative. This also enabled us to revisit projects that we had exited. It gave us a renewed focus on project sustainability and fine-tuned our exit strategy.
But I digress. Coming back to the topic, I hope this is a trend that is here to stay – CEOs and Corporate leaders looking at CSR for what it is – the corporate’s social responsibility, not just a checkbox activity done for the purpose of annual corporate compliance. Increased participation of the top echelons of corporates would hopefully help NGOs define problem statements better, refine reporting, and redefine input, output, and outcome indicators. Maybe just maybe, Corporate leaders taking a deeper interest in CSR will help Corporate India and NGOs to find creative solutions to problems that have persisted for a long time while also being sympathetic to all the stakeholders, especially beneficiaries. Will this be the silver bullet that will enable corporate partners to look at funding multi-year projects without the superficial focus on ‘impact’ and ‘targets’ in the short term? Maybe not…but the eternal optimist in me says…maybe, just maybe.
The simple question that got me thinking about all this and sharing my thoughts is when the Head of a long-term Corporate partner recently asked us – What happened to all the goats and cows we gave 3 years ago.