What is Corporate Social Innovation (CSI)?
Corporate Social Innovation is an evolving field, poised to make a transformative impact on the greatest challenges facing society. Fueled by radically changing perceptions around the role of business (e.g., Business Roundtable, Larry Fink/Blackrock’s letter to CEOs, Stakeholder Capitalism, etc.), CSI seizes on momentum for businesses to find innovative, sustainable paths forward to rebuild society.
At the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation (RICSI), we engage purposefully with current and future business leaders to integrate societal needs into their business strategies and operations. As an outcome, we believe we can help build a stronger, healthier, and more sustainable world. RICSI’s four pillar model represents four paths forward, which can be used by companies as individual strategies or, optimally, in combination to build an integrated company-wide strategy.
Here we focus on innovative and practical examples of organizations stepping up to these challenges, while they address some of the most intractable economic, societal and environmental challenges facing our world today and tomorrow. Let’s start with the first pillar…
Giving Back to Society
One  pillar in the RICSI Corporate Social Innovation framework is “Giving Back to Society,” and there are many compelling reasons why Companies give back to society. From an external perspective business benefits include positive branding and free publicity, differentiating your business, attracting new customers, and gaining customer loyalty and support. For example, research has shown that nearly 9/10 (88%)  of consumers say they would buy a product from companies that focus their business on doing more than just making money.
From an internal perspective, giving back boosts your employees’ morale, and increases their engagement, commitment and loyalty to the company. A significant benefit for companies today is the extent to which it helps attract and retain top talent, especially Millennials and Gen Z. Over the long term, giving back to the communities where you live and work builds deep bonds and networks of relationships that ultimately translate into greater profitability. Last but not least, giving back makes people happier!
In our model of Giving Back to Society, we articulate three core streams of activity: Strategic Philanthropy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Volunteering.

• Strategic Corporate Philanthropy

Strategic corporate philanthropy represents one approach to corporate or business giving, designed as an optimal way to align with the company’s overall mission, strategies, and values. Typically, it is not purely altruistic. Let’s explore three illustrative examples.

• Salesforce 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model.

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, is widely known for having promulgated his Foundation’s 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model. Since 1999, the company has been setting aside 1 percent of its equity, 1 percent of employee time, and 1 percent of its products to support its Foundation. The company aligns its philanthropic commitments with the core competencies and expertise of its talented employees. In turn, the Foundation supports programs dedicated to education, workforce development, and thriving Communities. Since its founding, Salesforce has given more than $240 million in grants, 3.5 million hours of community service, and provided product donations for more than 39,000 nonprofits and education institutions. Other companies such as Google, Zynga, Workday, Yelp and others have taken notice and implemented a similar model.

• BD Social Investment

As one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world, BD is committed to advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics, and delivery of care. Through its BD Foundation, the company targets the company’s strategic philanthropy initiatives to address unmet healthcare needs, improve healthcare access, and strengthen the capacity of health systems to provide preventive care to all patients, with particular emphasis on the most vulnerable populations. One of BD’s signature programs is “BD Helping Build Healthy Communities Innovations in Care Award” which funds community based health centers. Through this program, BD has enabled more than 29 million people in medically underserved areas to receive healthcare at community health center sites. To date $4.6 million has been awarded to 36 health centers in 19 states for these programs.

• TOMS Grassroots Good

“We believe in a future where all people have the chance to thrive. That’s why we invest one third of our profits in grassroots efforts, like organizations creating change at the local level, and driving progress from the ground up.”
TOMS famously donated a pair of shoes for every pair they sold. This resulted in the donation of over 60 million pairs of shoes to children in need. They also used their profits to assist the visually-impaired by providing prescription glasses and medical treatments, provide safe drinking water and build businesses in developing countries to create jobs. More recently, after the company was beset by financial challenges in the highly competitive shoe business, TOMS continued its commitment to giving back to society, but evolved its one-for-one giving model to now donate one dollar for every three dollars it makes. According to the company this created a more sustainable and flexible model for giving.

• CSR and Corporate Volunteering

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a way for companies to be accountable to all their stakeholders for the impact they are having on society, including social, environmental, and economic. CSR comes in many forms. In Building a Culture for Sustainability, I shared nine “best practice” case studies of companies’ innovations in CSR (e.g., Alcoa, BASF, Church & Dwight, Pfizer, et al.). This inside-out, in-depth view demonstrated that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to CSR. Rather, myriad industries and sectors are most successful when they customize their approaches to CSR in ways that uniquely suit their goals and culture.
Here we provide a few outstanding examples of innovative CSR programs that involve corporate volunteering to enhance the local community’s health and well-being. Millennials and Generation Z in particular, are keen to take part in CSR initiatives such as being able to participate in volunteer work in their local community, or making and having their donations matched towards a company’s charitable efforts.

• Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow

Since 2010, Samsung has focused on enhancing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education across the U.S. by helping the next generation of students to develop their STEM skills while solving a problem in their community. The initiative addresses the sizable gap in education and career readiness in STEM skills in the U.S. vs. other countries through a nationwide classroom competition. In addition, Samsung has taken the “Day of Service” concept to a whole new level, as it transformed to a Month of Service in 2020, where employees perform acts of community service with non-profit organizations across the country.

• Johnson & Johnson Goes Above and Beyond to Care for the Planet

Global pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, a 2021 Fortune World’s Most Admired Company, has been leading the way in meeting its CSR, corporate citizenship and sustainability goals. For more than three decades, the company has had a relentless focus on finding innovative ways to reduce waste and energy at its facilities worldwide. Its dedicated employees are so engaged in finding innovative ways to meet the company’s goals that they often exceed the ambitious targets, providing a multitude of examples of CSR in action. Johnson & Johnson’s initiatives range from leveraging the power of wind, to providing safe, clean water to communities around the world, to turning waste from sanitary pads into useable pads for women in Africa.

• WeSpire’s Novel Approaches

WeSpire makes extensive use of its innovative technology platform, based on behaviorally-based science and advanced data analytics, to create customized opportunities for companies and their employees to give back to society. For example, companies can place funds they are willing to donate into each employee’s account on WeSpire’s platform to make a donation. The program puts flexibility and control in the hands of the employees, as it enables them to choose where to direct the funds, how much to donate, lets them add to the donation, and allows the company to match if they choose. Using this novel model, 62% of the funds a corporation was willing to donate were used by their employees in just three months. More typically, research shows that the average employee participation rate in matching programs is only 10%.
Conclusion
As we look at the many challenges society faces, from poverty to food insecurity, to gender and racial inequality and inequity, to climate change and global warming, we see businesses in every sector and industry stepping up to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow through corporate social innovation. Here we have illuminated one of the pillars of CSI and shared multiple ways businesses are igniting these possibilities through strategic corporate philanthropy, CSR and Corporate Volunteering. We are inspired by the possibility of a new society emerging like a mighty oak from an acorn, as business and society work side-by-side towards a common vision of a society that succeeds, not just for some, but for everyone on the planet.
Be sure to check out our next blog #2 in the CSI series focused on “Aligning Profit and Purpose,” and featuring such best practice companies as Novo Nordisk, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Interface Carpet, Danone, et al.





References:
Benioff, M. (November, 2013). “Disrupting Corporate Philanthropy.” Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Farrington, J. & Rafferty, E. (Nov. 5, 2020). “BD Social Investing Overview.” Presentation to ‘Intro to Corporate Social Innovation.’ Rutgers Business School.

​Most of us are trained to be problem solvers. Give us a problem and we’re on it. We’ve got tools, we’ve had experience. No worries, we’ve got this one. But what if the situation that confronts us includes options that seem to be in opposition, each is problematic within itself, and because of their importance taking any one side creates a whole slew of other problems? What then? Do the analysis and comparative information then use what you’ve found to choose the least bad between them? It’s easy to see a cascading effect of undesired consequences that ensue either way. You find yourself on the horns of a dilemma. More often than not people treat oppositional forces as either/or dilemmas, justifying decisions as doing the best they could when faced with nothing but bad choices. What if you approached the situation a different way, one where better options could emerge? What if instead of problems, we were to treat the situation at hand as a paradox where the seeming oppositional “problems” could be managed?  In addressing issues of sustainability there are many paradoxes we must manage to obtain optimal solutions that dynamically balance the forces by which people can make a living while being in harmony with ones that maintain our life-supporting planet.  

- Alisa Costa and Linda Morris Kelley, Working Cities Pittsfield

We have an abundance of natural beauty, outdoor recreation, arts and culture, affordable living, and some very talented people in the Berkshires. Especially during the summer months our rich variety of attractions brings visitors from far flung locations to our shops, restaurants, and hotels and has done so for generations. With all its wonderful attributes, you’d think the Berkshires would be thriving. Yet like most other old post-industrial and family farm regions in the country with once prosperous pasts, the towns and cities in Berkshire county fell behind. We are now challenged to create a smart, thriving future. The opportunity embedded in this challenge is to learn what makes our region’s rural communities and urban hubs work. Pittsfield has embraced this challenge. Berkshire Bridges - Working Cities Pittsfield, a cross-sector coalition of civil society, business, government, and citizens is working to create a city and county that works for everyone. ​

As Steve Jobs famously said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” In that same article, Jobs went on to say that many people have insufficient diversity in their lives. “They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem. The better one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.” (Wired, February, 1996) That’s one of the things we do best at Berkshire Bridges-Working Cities Pittsfield, connect things, people, experiences, dots, and more, so that working together, project by project, initiative by initiative we are busy creating a city that works in a county that works. 

One way we are doing this is through Working Cities Wednesdays. Many businesses participate in a day of service programs. These are valuable opportunities for companies to build comraderie and give back to the community by working on specific projects. Working Cities Wednesdays are something different. Leaving people’s titles and associations at the door, these monthly open and inclusive community gatherings give people an opportunity to propose an initiative that’s important to them and connect with other people who are also motivated to work on that issue. It’s a lively and fun way to actually get things done, and in the process have the potential of making our little corner of the world better. This is the kind of conceptual, creative thinking to solve real problems and open real opportunities that Dan Pink, author of Drive (2009), has found to be the most motivating and rewarding for people. 

Because Berkshire County’s population isn’t very large – just over 130,000, relatively small, manageable initiatives can increase people’s ability to participate in the county’s economy, ones that can create and fill jobs and so lower unemployment. Our lives and the well-being of our communities are deeply intertwined. If we can help Pittsfield thrive, where a third of the county’s population resides, we can have a huge impact on the entire region. So, what makes a city like Pittsfield work and its residents and businesses thrive?

Economic development experts have been working to learn the magic combination for decades. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (the Fed) looked into just this by studying cities similar to Pittsfield that have bounced back from the loss of major manufacturing and economic downturns. They learned that “the critical factor was not a city's industry mix, demographic composition, or geographic position. Instead, resurgence resulted from the ability of leaders in those cities to collaborate across sectors around a long-term vision for their success.”

With this knowledge in hand, the Fed then challenged Gateway Cities (those old post-industrial cities) across the Commonwealth to collaborate and change the way they work together in order to turn around their economies. The City of Pittsfield and its residents answered this challenge. We started by listening to residents share what their hopes are for their community and what gets in the way of those hopes. We held fourteen facilitated community conversations around the city that created a real space for us to learn a great deal about how the city is working and not working for residents. 

Some things we learned did not surprise us, like how lack of reliable public transportation keeps under resourced residents from getting to work opportunities and isolates them from the rest of our community. Residents also shared a disturbing trend about how they do not feel welcome in many spaces and in many cases, they feel disrespected. They shared stories about feeling “less than human” when seeking services at local agencies and government offices. They said they were tired of being promised change by initiative after initiative and not seeing anything happen.

Who was listening? More than a two dozen leaders of area nonprofits, businesses, civic institutions, and city government decided they would not stand by and allow a story of division and resignation to be the story of Pittsfield. We knew things needed to change at the core; real systems change that could bridge connections between under resourced residents, jobs, and the institutions that are supposed to serve them. The change we seek puts residents, all of us and those we serve in these spaces, at the decision-making table. Thus, Working Cities Pittsfield was created for this purpose.

Together, leaders and residents describe a future Pittsfield that is just, thriving, and safe. We aim to create more welcoming spaces for people of all backgrounds, including diverse incomes and ethnicities. In the next ten years, we envision a city with increasing median income levels in our poorest neighborhoods by ten percent and increasing full time employment by five percent. But how do we get there? 

Working Cities Pittsfield adopted a community change model called Bridges out of Poverty, a national program supported by anti-poverty experts, by which we will bridge the divides and foster understanding between workers and employers, and between residents and government and human services. In a community where the haves and have nots appear particularly distant from each other we will need to learn how to work together better.

Working Cities Pittsfield now sits at many tables in order to bring the voices of people with lived experience to decision makers in economic development. We’ve learned a lot about the Berkshires’ job match conundrum. Employers who say they cannot find good, reliable workers and workers who report not being able to find good paying, consistent jobs where they are treated with dignity and respect. In addition, competitive demands and technological advances have made it so that workers need more training and education than ever in order to earn a living wage. One of the stumbling blocks here is that the traditional model of work and employment people have used as a guideline requires workers to adapt to fit the professed needs employers but seldomly inviting significantly related input from the experiences of potential employees. With the current low unemployment rate, employers are finding it difficult to hire reliable workers and people who want to work yet have been left out of the job market. As a result, businesses come up short and potential employees are unable to find work. It’s time to ask if these businesses might be overlooking people who are rich in life skills, competent in managing with less and in creative problem-solving, but may not fit the standards for new employees that they have used in the past. 

Our models of work and support services most often have been designed and run by people who typically do not really relate to the lives of employees or would-be employees who live in chronically under resourced situations. When you don’t have enough resources to meet your daily or monthly needs, with a little left over to save for emergencies, it is destabilizing. An inconvenience for someone with sufficient resources, such as a child getting sick or a car breaking down can wreak havoc on someone who is just getting by. Missing a day of work could mean having to do a lot of juggling to be able to pay a bill or meet other basic needs. Missing a day of work has an impact on the business as well. Multiple occurrences take a toll on productivity. Turnover and training can become extremely costly. The Bridges Out of Poverty program provides businesses and their employees with a foundation for understanding important differences and a common language for creative resolutions. Building a basic appreciation of needs from both sides can help put in place systems that stabilize workers, decrease turnover, and increase productivity significantly. Once again, creative collaboration yields improved results. Step by step, initiative by initiative, Berkshire Bridges – Working Cities Pittsfield is working to connect people with people, people with information, and people with resources in ways that make this city and this county all around better.

If you love the Berkshires and Pittsfield like we do, we invite you to join us and help to develop its real potential as a just, safe, thriving place to live and work. You can start by coming to a Working Cities Wednesday, pitch a project you want to see happen here, meet engaged and engaging people who like you want to make a difference by solving problems, creating opportunities, and connecting the dots between needs and resources. 

To learn more about this case study read Chapter 8 in the The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: Building New Bridges. Click here to purchase