From multinational corporations with staff in their thousands, to local startups with just a few employees, CSR is often an important part of their business aims. It can be something built into the bedrock of a business, and something that reflects their values and aims. So you can see why this is important.
What is CSR anyway?
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. Basically, it’s a set of rules you give your own business on the contributions you aim to make, be they charitable donations, activism, philanthropy or ethical causes.
There are many reasons businesses may want to have a CSR plan in place, be that aligning strongly with your business values – showing you do what you say you do, wanting to give back to a community, or simply because you have a cause that means something either to you, or to your employees.
Using CSR to bring people together
One strong benefit from having a charitable aim, is that the fundraising portion of this can often be used as a way to unite your employees and effectively work as team building exercises. Who out there isn’t familiar with a bake sale or a fun run done in aid of a charity?
The options out there for having fun in the name of charity are endless. But the common theme amongst these is that they are often done as a team, or group activity.
This of course starts to become a problem when people are no longer able to spend time together as they once were. With ways of working drastically changing, remote working becoming the norm, and social distancing here to stay, businesses are having to rethink their approach to CSR and charitable donations.
So how do you meet both your CSR goals and engage your employees in activities? A ‘donate now’ button definitely isn’t going to cut it!
An online fundraising alternative
There are now more and more ways that people and businesses can utilise online systems to create a fundraising experience that’s tailored to them.
There are a whole range of platforms that allow for fundraising using a combination of app integration and different donation methods to create a more personalised and exciting fundraising experience for everyone.
These platforms give you the ability to connect to apps such as Strava, Fitbit, Spotify, and Twitch to name but a few, allowing for a truly integrated experience.
Bespoke fundraising landing pages
Even when apart, you can bring your teams together by building a bespoke fundraising experience. No matter what it is you’d like to do, from distance-baking (it’s a thing, I promise), to running and walking challenges, it can be built and integrated into a seamless experience.
Your business can have their own landing pages built, designed using your company branding, or how about a fun new brand just for this? This could cover a whole range of exciting challenges from running, to gaming and even playlist creation (I particularly like this one, as team DG have a very eclectic taste in music, to put it lightly).
These online platforms are often already integrated with some of the biggest charities in the UK, meaning your fundraising efforts can be up and running as quickly as you can shout ‘bake off’.
Need help setting your marketing strategy, defining your priorities, or just want general guidance? Book a consultation call today with our team of experts.
You can see some examples of our previous charity landing pages here : Step2It for Help for Heroes & Miles Ahead for St John Ambulance
