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Include the Five Stars Appeal in your CSR programme
Receiving positive PR is one of the rewards, together with a host of benefits, including improved internal moral and staff retention
The Five Stars Appeal is a charity committed to raising £1million to buy a much needed MRI scanner for the New Children's Hospital in Manchester.
We continually rely upon the support of individuals and companies to continue our lifesaving work.
By adopting us as your company’s charity partner you can help us save more children who otherwise might not survive.
We are a local Manchester charity with international celebrity Ambassadors and Patrons. We can deliver and support a range of activities that engage staff, raise money, generate publicity and, ultimately, help save lives.
We will make it easy for you to support our lifesaving work and help you meet your social responsibility, PR and business objectives.
To discuss how your company might engage with our work, please call Nicola Smith, Corporate Fundraiser, by clicking here for contact details.
Adapting to the concept of social responsibility
In an article for the CIPR’s online magazine – www.profile-extra.co.uk – Nick Murray-Leslie MCIPR, director of Chatsworth Communications, looks at adapting to the concept of social responsibility.
Let’s get it out of the way early. Most Corporate Social Responsibility work is public relations driven. But why is that often seen as such a bad thing? Economist Milton Friedman, who died last year, is renowned as one of the most effective campaigners against CSR.
In his book Capitalism & Freedom Friedman argued that a corporation, unlike a person, did not have a conscience, and that the management's obligations beyond maximising profit only extended as far as complying with the law. But like most broad brushstroke definitions, the man was misunderstood. In the book Friedman qualified his point on maximising profit within "the rules of the game".
He defined these rules as “the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom”. Friedman clearly understood the economic value of an ethical culture and the limitations of an exclusive focus on profit.
He is actually reinforcing the notion that a successful business understands it is fully interdependent within a society. The route to evolving and growing is to maximise that position, and one way of doing it is through effective CSR, with the inevitable PR benefits for the organisation.
Many companies pick a cause or charity which appeals to them yet has little in common with the company. The mantra when considering any CSR programme should be ‘let’s do what our business already does, but adapt it to benefit the wider community and let’s include our stakeholders.’
To criticise CSR for being about public relations in press coverage terms misses the point. Of course it is good PR and all the better as a result. Organisations should receive recognition for community work. Positive PR is one of the rewards, together with a host of benefits, including improved internal moral and staff retention.
Chatsworth’s top tips for effective CSR
Do what you do – adapt your business or expertise into a CSR tool
Engage your employees
Involve your customers
Promote your efforts – encourage others
Choose a project for support where your business can make a visible and effective difference – don’t always think big
Have fun and keep the enthusiasm up – and reap the internal communications and business culture benefits