“We are trying to be everything to everyone.” 

“Our program is an inch deep and a mile wide.”

“There is no focus and we achieve little impact.” 

Sound familiar? Unfortunately this refrain is heard at companies that recognize the importance of community involvement but struggle to make a difference for the community and the company.

Ron Brown teaches the Center for Corporate Citizenship course Developing a Community Involvement Strategy and has heard it all before. He also understands what it takes to change the outcome.  “They are indicators of a need to have a more strategic program,” Brown says.

Companies looking to make a positive contribution to their community often get involved in a wide range of initiatives but spread themselves too thin. “They may be good things,” he observes, “but you can’t make a significant difference in anything.”

In the course, Brown explores some of the common pitfalls companies run into with their community involvement programs. He notes that commitments are frequently made to programs on the basis of history without intentional efforts to review relevance or effectiveness. “Community relations professionals have to adjust to remain aligned and consistent with where there company is going,” stresses Brown.

He notes that narrowing the focus of community involvement does involve an element of pain because you have to withdraw from programs. But by conducting a thorough external and internal assessment, companies can justify decisions by factoring changes in community needs and recognizing the company’s needs for visibility, brand awareness or alignment with business goals.

Brown adds that when developing a community involvement strategy it is important for a company to play to its strengths and consider all of its resources. “Are there things the company can bring to the table to drive solutions to key community issues?”  For example, Brown remarks, a bank might create a financial literacy program or a utility could focus its efforts around energy conservation and safety. “Companies need to look at their key competencies that offer opportunities for skills-based volunteering,” Brown says. “Many times the skills that we bring to the table are quite powerful.”

Developing a Community Involvement Strategy provides a step-by-step process to move programs from levels of frustration to a point of exceptional performance. Additionally, the course provides tools to develop effective strategies, prioritize issues and remove obstacles to achieving exceptional performance.

The tools will help you:

• Create a community involvement strategy that delivers social AND business value
• Learn to sharpen the focus of an existing strategy to boost impact and use resources more efficiently
• Strengthen collaboration skills to set strategy across the business
• Protect strategies from common pitfalls that threaten implementation

Developing a Community Involvement Strategy will be held in Dallas April 18-20, at the Fairmont Dallas. A special hotel rate of $159.00 is available until March 27. Click here to learn more and to register.

The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship at the Carroll School of Management is a membership-based research organization committed to helping business leverage its social, economic and human assets to ensure both its success and a more just and sustainable world. As a leading resource on corporate citizenship, the Center works with global corporations to help them define, plan and operationalize their corporate citizenship. Through the power of research, management and leadership programs, and the insights of its 400 corporate members, the Center creates knowledge, value and demand for corporate citizenship. www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org

Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship connects professionals with research, insights on corporate social responsibility and management education opportunities. Founded by the Carroll School of Management, we help our member companies know more, do more and achieve more with their corporate citizenship programs. We engage over 400 member companies and more than 10,000 individuals annually to share knowledge and expertise about the practice of corporate citizenship through our executive education program, research, courses, and our annual conference. For more information on our courses, research and membership, visit ccc.bc.edu. Connect with Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook & Google+.

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