Community Investment: a powerfull CSR tool

The concept of investing in a community, needs to be explored and understood by organisations who want to help their communities, whether they are digging wells or helping the orphanage. The investment approach is about making contributions with the view to seeing clearly defined changes in the local problems in the near future. This is about having sustainable change in mind even before the project starts. This kind thinking significantly affects the way businesses carry out CSR in their communities. The days of throwing money at the local problems and expecting a miraculous change are gone, community investment is the responsible and the sustainable way to approach CSR in our communities.

Community development activities that lack the investment approach will lack the lasting impact that needs to be realised, value for money will also be in question for such projects. This approach requires more planning and coordination, it requires more collaboration with various stakeholders. The issue is, if we are to make a difference in dealing with community problems especially those with long history of failures and recurring situations, we need to take a different approach.

It goes without saying that community investment projects need to tie into the corporate strategy of the company that is supporting the initiative or carrying out a particular project. If the ideology or the vision of the project is not in sync with the corporate strategy, the chances of the project failing is quite high. When there are budget cuts such projects will be the first to get the axe. The company will find it hard to view the project as nothing but a philanthropic project and not a CSR project (or an act of being responsible). CSR is not compulsory but it is difficult to see any responsible organisation without an annual CSR report that is part of the corporate strategy reporting.

CSR Nigeria is working in partnership Business Day newspapers to deliver a ground breaking workshop that will, work with NGOs and businesses to formulate a way forward in community investment and development.

Visit www.csrnigeria.org for more details