Creating Authentic Social Impact Strategies: Top Tips

Authentic social impact is crucial for your company’s post-Covid-19 recovery. Find valuable insights from Hannah Nokes, Chief Optimist at Magnify Impact, Katelyn Caruso-Sharpe, Senior Account Director at FischTank PR and Marketing and Iskren Kulev, CEO of KindLink about this topic below:

• Survival is not the only thing a business should focus on right now. Focus on growth as well and remember that CSR is the best way to keep employees engaged. CSR doesn’t cost teams anything, it is more about coming together to support a cause that matters to them.
• Your CSR and social impact strategies are the embodiment of your company’s purpose and values. They are the greatest tools for engaging your customers and clients and keeping them loyal to your brand.
• Millennials and Generation-Z are particularly interested in seeing how the companies and brands they support are investing in social impact.
• For authentic communication, you need to know your audience and target your messaging accordingly. But have a consistent tone no matter where and to whom you are communicating.
• Showcase your social impact, spotlight how you are giving back to your communities.
• To get your activity seen and heard by the media, find your story, hone it and target it towards journalists reporting on it.
• The quickest way to measure social impact is to measure what you are doing and what improvement in behaviour you are starting to see because of what you are doing. Capture stories that raw data can never depict.
• If you are a non-profit looking to partner with companies, make sure to approach corporations that are aligned with the activities of your organisation,
• Communicate clearly with furloughed employees about the opportunities they have to keep them engaged. Make it easy for them to access relevant information.
• Collaborate with local governments to increase your local social impact. Authentic CSR and social impact is the best way to create relationships with local government.
• Engage your leadership teams. Employees and customers are your greatest asset and talking to the leadership team about CSR in this way are better than just strictly presenting it as ‘the right thing to do’.

As a company deciding which causes to support can be tricky. Keep these three aspects in mind when making your choice:

• The company’s purpose and values. An example would be, Waste Management who have a strong value of ‘people first’ so they made the decision not to lay off a single employee during the crisis.
• Company’s ‘superpower’. What makes you different? For example, Dyson can produce ventilators because of the expertise they already have.
• Stakeholder relationships need to strengthen through your impact work. Think about your investors, customers, local suppliers and see how you can invest in that. For example, invest in STEM programmes in local schools if you know you will need a future pipeline of software development talent. It drives value back into the company and engages the local community and future employee base.