Daniel Yomtobian Explains How to Build a Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or are just launching your business, you’ll find yourself funneling most of your resources and energy into your company and building it up. However, a large part of what makes a business successful is how you help others and give back to your community.
We live in a time where image is everything — especially for a business. Customers judge companies by their demonstration of compassion and it has become a fundamental aspect of the business landscape and defining success. That’s why businesses today are more focused on implementing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts — it can be the make or break of how a business is seen in the public eye.
Regardless of the CSR initiatives your business decides to pursue, even a modest effort can be hugely beneficial in gaining positive publicity, customer loyalty, and a simple feeling of “doing good.” Daniel Yomtobian, philanthropist and CEO of Bian Capital from Los Angeles, California, shares four fundamental steps when building a corporate social responsibility campaign.
Define Your Purpose
The first step in building a successful CSR campaign is knowing why you’re doing it in the first place. Obviously, CSR looks good on a business; however, there’s more to it than that. When it comes to corporate social responsibility, it’s about aligning your efforts with your purpose. In other words, to truly implement a successful CSR campaign, you must align it with your business in the right way. Daniel Yomtobian recommends determining what CSR means to your company and understanding how it complements your mission, vision, and values.
Research and Identify Issues
Research is important, especially if this is the first CSR campaign you’re going to implement. Find out which CSR issues are the most significant to your business. You can start by sourcing out online lists for relevant issues in your industry. You can also look at CSR or other philanthropic reports of larger companies in your industry to see how they are responding to the issues their key stakeholders care most about.
Prioritize Your Efforts
After finding out the issues that are most important to your business, you can start to prioritize your efforts and how you’ll be tackling each issue. Engaging your employees, customers, and the local community is a great way to get going and gain support for the issues you want to address first.
Begin to Implement
Getting started and implementing your CSR campaign is one of the most important things to do. Corporate social responsibility must become a part of your overall business plan — it shouldn’t be a standalone practice. Don’t think of your CSR strategy as a part of your business, but rather, the guiding force in which you do business.
Daniel Yomtobian’s Conclusion
Corporate social responsibility programs can bring forth so many benefits to your business and society as a whole. These four steps to getting started can help your business properly implement CSR and weave it into your corporate identity.
