In an age when corporate silence creates risk and 91% of leaders say companies should be courageous and take a stand on social and environmental issues, having an active corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy is essential. Every business needs to rethink its approach to CSR—or risk losing consumer trust.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what an effective CSR strategy looks like and how to build or improve your own. We’ll cover:

• What is a CSR Strategy?
• The Business Impact of a Strong CSR Strategy
• Core Components of CSR Strategy
• Bonus: 3 Modern Strategies for CSR Success

By the end of this article, you’ll understand the ins and outs of CSR strategy-building, preparing you to reshape your company’s approach and invest in the tools to support this vital shift. Let’s dive in!

What is a CSR strategy?

A CSR strategy is a company’s plan for fulfilling its social and environmental responsibility, both internally and externally, through specific initiatives. 

This might include ongoing philanthropy programs, long-term improvements to the inclusivity of your hiring process, public advocacy for value-aligned causes, and more. Ultimately, your CSR strategy takes a big-picture view of all your social responsibility activities and how they’ll drive value for your business.

What should my CSR strategy look like?

CSR strategies can vary drastically, depending on business priorities, company culture, and employee preferences. To get an idea of the right direction, take our quiz and find out what your company’s “CSR persona” is!

The Business Impact of a Strong CSR Strategy

When your company maintains a thoughtful, value-aligned CSR strategy that drives community impact, you’ll benefit in a number of ways. Just take a look at these statistics from 360MatchPro and Double the Donation:

• Over 90% of consumers worldwide say they’re likely to switch to brands supporting a good cause.
• Companies with a clearly defined sense of purpose are up to 50% more likely to successfully expand into new markets.
• Consumers are four times more likely to trust companies with a strong, defined purpose.
• Businesses that regularly engage employees in CSR activities see an average of 57% lower turnover.
• 71% of employees say it’s important to see their employers give back through corporate philanthropy.
• 55% of employees would take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company that aligns with their values.

Altogether, your business can see wide-ranging benefits from implementing the right CSR strategy—increased brand loyalty, consumer trust, employee engagement and retention, and more.

Core Components of CSR Strategy

Every CSR strategy should have:

Company Values and Code of Ethics

Your CSR approach should be built on your company’s values. Every decision you make about philanthropy, internal initiatives, and public CSR communications should be aligned with the core essence of your business. 

Define or revisit your core values and brainstorm ways your CSR strategy could tie into them. For example, say that one of your values is “We empower and support our team, because we know it takes a village.” This could inspire internal initiatives like providing more wellness benefits to employees, along with employee-driven giving and volunteering programs that empower them to give back.

At this point, you should also define or revisit your company’s code of ethics. A strong CSR strategy often starts by verifying or implementing ethical business practices, such as fair labor practices and anti-discrimination policies.

Value-Aligned Programs

With your company values and ethics in mind, choose one or more CSR programs that are clearly aligned. This could be an environmental initiative if you value sustainability, or a company-wide volunteering day if you prioritize teamwork. 

If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend employee giving programs. Workplace giving encompasses all sorts of strategies that can align with many values, including:

• Matching gifts: Your company matches eligible employee donations with a contribution of its own. Highlight your values by increasing the match ratio for certain causes or organization types you’re most interested in supporting, like educational institutions.
• Volunteer grants: Donate a set amount to nonprofits where employees regularly volunteer. This program encourages team-building, skill development, firsthand community impact, and more.
• In-kind gifts: Collect needed items for a local organization, or donate pro bono professional services. 
• Employee grants: Show appreciation for your employees and recognize high achievers with charitable grants. Let each recipient donate the money to the cause or nonprofit of their choice.
• Payroll deductions: Support a wide range of causes that interest employees by offering monthly or bi-weekly automatic disbursements from their paychecks. They’ll become recurring donors to their favorite organizations with no hassle.

Remember that these programs are just the beginning—don’t be afraid to get creative and test out different CSR activities that align with your unique priorities.

Employee Input and Collaboration

Value alignment will appease your stakeholders, but it’s equally important that your CSR strategy engages employees. You need team members’ buy-in if you expect them to participate.

To that end, bring employees into your strategy-building process early and invite collaboration often. Ask employees directly what causes they care about, how they want to participate in CSR, what ideas excite them, and if they have any suggestions of their own. Once you start implementing your strategy, continue sending surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and generate more ideas for improvement.

Strategic CSR Goals

Specific, measurable goals are also essential to a successful CSR strategy. Without direction and a way to track your progress, you won’t be able to sustain your programs or prove their impact to your stakeholders. 

With your leadership team, discuss ideal CSR outcomes that integrate with your other business goals. Then, zero in on specific KPIs you can track. These might include:

• Dollars donated and dollars matched
• Total hours employees volunteered
• Per-program employee participation rates
• Employee retention metrics
• Number of organizations and causes supported

Transparent Reporting

Now that you have identified your KPIs, determine how you’ll track them and report on your CSR success to employees, stakeholders, and the public. The easiest way to do so is with corporate giving software.

A streamlined, all-in-one CSR solution like Uncommon Giving enables you to automatically collect data on all your employee giving and volunteering programs in one place. Administrators and employees can easily access real-time metrics about matching gifts, Dollars for Doers grants, volunteerism, payroll giving, and more. Quickly visualize CSR impact at the individual or company-wide level.

For example, check out this dashboard that displays personal CSR achievements, the number of causes and nonprofits impacted, global distribution of funds, and giving distribution by cause area:

KPIs will help you demonstrate your programs’ impact, but consumers and employees also want to know the specific outcomes your CSR strategy achieved. Go beyond tracking data by learning about the tangible results of your grants and corporate donations. 

The nonprofits you support are well-versed in impact measurement, and they’d likely be happy to provide specific impact data for your company to share with its stakeholders. For instance, an animal shelter might let you know that every $500 donated funds one basic medical procedure. If you and your employees gave $7,000 to this organization over the course of a year, that’s 14 pet surgeries funded!

Bonus: 3 Modern Strategies for CSR Success

The CSR landscape is always shifting, so use these timeless strategies to ground your program as it grows.

1. Choose Affordable, Streamlined Software

Don’t waste your budget on enterprise solutions that require months of setup and make employees jump through hoops to participate. Instead, compare solutions now and choose a CSR platform that empowers you to generate more impact for a fraction of the price. 

Prioritize software that is:

• Affordable, with transparent pricing
• Built to simplify corporate giving programs, not complicate them
• Optimized for easy mobile access through a dedicated app
• Quick to implement (think days, not weeks or months)
• Centralized, with support for all your employee giving and volunteering programs
• Modern, with the tools to manage stock and crypto donations
• Able to automatically track and report on your CSR data

Uncommon Giving offers all of these features and more—it’s the easiest corporate giving software you’ll ever use. Manage your company’s donation matching, volunteerism, payroll giving, and individual employee giving programs from one place, for an affordable price.

2. Empower Employees to Lead

As mentioned earlier, employee buy-in and participation in your CSR strategy is essential. The best way to inspire employees to engage with your programs is to put them in the driver’s seat. Empower them to participate in the ways that most resonate using these strategies:

• Offer employee-led programs. Implement multiple CSR initiatives that allow employees to bring their own visions to life. For instance, you might have an employee volunteering program that encourages individuals to plan company-sponsored volunteer events.
• Empower them to direct giving. The latest research shows that companies offering both volunteering and giving programs see higher employee engagement (11.7% compared to 4.5% for giving-only). Increase workplace giving participation even more by letting team members direct funds to the causes and organizations of their choice. 
• Recognize their impact. Celebrate the employees who participate in your programs to show your appreciation. Use public and private channels to recognize their contributions, and share impact data often to demonstrate the real change employees are making.

Employees have to know about your CSR programs before they can engage with them. No matter what your company’s CSR strategy looks like, promote opportunities to your team often. Use our free email templates to get a jump on communication.

3. Partner with Like-Minded Organizations

Take your CSR strategy to the next level by establishing nonprofit partnerships. More and more companies are partnering with organizations that align with their values and their employees’ interests. 

Through a one-to-one partnership, your company can generate greater impact at the local level while strengthening its long-term ties to the community. Plus, employees can develop relationships with an organization that shares their values and see the results of their donations and volunteerism up close.

Reach out to a vetted nonprofit in your area that multiple employees already support. Ask about their needs and how your company could provide more personalized help, such as by sponsoring an event or developing a special matching gifts program.

Improving Your CSR Strategy with the Right Tools

It will take time to develop a CSR strategy that truly drives your company’s mission and goals forward, so invest in tools that will scale with your programs (like Uncommon Giving!). Collect employee feedback often, and don’t be afraid to pivot based on your community’s changing needs or your team’s preferences.

Looking for more insight into the world of CSR? Explore these additional resources from the Uncommon Giving team:

• Employee & Workplace Giving: Blueprint for Modern Companies. Employee-led giving programs are a staple of many businesses’ CSR strategies. Discover what these initiatives look like and how to improve yours.
• Corporate Giving Email Templates to Boost Participation. Looking for easy ways to engage your employees in your new CSR programs? Download our free email templates.
• Corporate Philanthropy for Businesses | Uncommon Giving. Explore Uncommon Giving’s modern, streamlined CSR tools and find out how we can help you run more inclusive, engaging programs.