Have you ever wanted to profile your CSR/Philanthropy initiatives in a clear and concise way? Sometimes, the public doesn’t want to know your numbers, how long you’ve spent with a foundation and all the sticky details.  Sometimes, all the public wants is quick and easy way to read the facts.  2012 will be the year of CSR, philanthropy and charity utilizing social media tools.  What’s the hottest tool organizations are using?  Infographics.

The There Is No Limit Foundation had a unique opportunity to work with a professional grade graphic design company.  Elefint Design donated their services to the foundation and the results were magnificent:

The There Is No Limit Foundation wanted to profile Guinea, a country sometimes turned a blind eye by donators.  The infographic highlights the most important problems the country is facing (contaminated drinking water, limited access to sanitation, living wages, illiteracy and death).

Secondly, the infographic highlights the There Is No Limit Foundation’s programs and how they address the serious problems Guinea is faced with.

The good news for you and your company, is that if you don’t have a graphic designer on your payroll, you can start small with Google’s Infographic Toolbox. Choose from dozens of templates to find the perfect display for your initiatives.

For more infographic templates, visit www.creattica.com.

Did you get your New Year’s Resolutions set for your company’s 2012 community involvement?  Did you set specific goals?  Did you develop a written action plan with goals, tasks, and responsibilities clearly defined?  If you did not do a plan yet, it is definitely not too late…start one today!

The beginning of a new fiscal/calendar year is a perfect time to revisit your company’s community involvement mission and strategy and to make specific plans for the coming year.  If you don’t have a written plan, it is way too easy to dilute your impact by being all over the map with your contributions, become overextended with your scarce resources, and cause confusion among employees and other stakeholders about the focus and true commitment of your company’s philanthropic actions.  Also, without a written plan as your map, it is hard to know when you have achieved what you set out to do.  While the feel good part of community involvement is great, there is the potential for much more significant impact for all concerned with just a bit of planning and strategy

The following are the two minimum steps we suggest all businesses take at this time of year.

1.  Revisit last year’s contributions – even if only briefly.

• What organizations or causes did our company support over the past year?
• What process did we use to select them?  How did that work?
• How did we support them (dollars, in-kind, people, commerce)?
• What was the total dollar value of all of our contributions (not just the tax deductable amount)?
• What percentage of either our gross revenue or net profit was our total contribution?
• What significant benefit did our support leverage for the community?  For our company?
• Were our community involvement efforts consciously tied to our business goals?
• What lessons did we learn this last year?  What do we want to be sure to do again?  What do we want to change?

2.  Set goals and targets for 2012.

The following series of questions are meant as food for thought as you or a committee of employees and/or other stakeholders make your 2012 plans.

• What resources (cash, in-kind, people) do we anticipate sharing in 2012? How much of each?
• Do we have options for engaging in commerce-based activities with nonprofits?
• What is the target percentage for our overall contribution? (1%, 2%, 3%, 5%, 10%, 100%,??)  Of sales? Profit?
• What is the targeted total dollar value?
• Are there financial trends for our company that we need to pay attention to when thinking about our community involvement?
• Given this projected level of resources, what strategy will we use to allocate our resources this year?
• What causes or organizations will we focus on working with or supporting this year?  Why?
• How will we select them?  Is there a process or is it first come, first served?
• Do any of these link with our other business goals for 2012?  If so, how?
• Are there times of year that are not good for heavy involvement due to existing commitments and work flow?
• How will we time our various types of involvement for this year?  One big project?  Something each quarter? Ongoing?  Or…?
• What are our specific goals?
• What action steps do we need to achieve our goals?
• Who (person, department, team or??) will have responsibility for which pieces?
• What are our tracking and reporting expectations?
• How and with whom will we share information about our effort?

Hopefully, you already have instituted in-depth systems for both these processes.  If not, this should help get you started.  If you need help, send us an email at info@core-thought.com.

The Denver Post is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

The Denver Post is Colorado’s first, most trusted source of information and market reach. Customers of the publication receive top-quality service and the best information, education and entertainment content in Colorado and the region. The Post is committed to producing an array of high quality, profitable core and niche products and services and providing the highest value to its readers, advertisers, and employees.

The Denver Post is focused on touching thousands of lives in Denver and Colorado through community service with confidence and optimism. The company has a long-standing tradition and legacy of giving back to the community. Community involvement has always been important to the newspaper as a media outlet and as a concerned corporate citizen. Through its community giving program, Denver Post Community, over $6.5 million annually is distributed to charitable agencies in the Denver metro area.

Dagoba Chocolate is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

Dagoba is an organic brand of high-quality chocolate, founded by Frederick Schilling in Boulder, Colorado, and now based in Ashland, Oregon. The firm’s commitment to creating deeply satisfying, sustainable chocolate grew out of Frederick’s realization that cacao production is all too often associated with rainforest destruction, loss of heirloom varietals, and producer poverty. Frederick regularly travels to producing countries to locate high-quality sources, establish direct partnerships, collaborate on post-harvest processing, and learn how equitable cacao trading supports communities and the environment. This intensive process is rare across the industry, but it is essential in fulfilling the firm’s mission to offer the best of all worlds. The company makes premium organic chocolate, with many selections enhanced by infused exotic oils, fruits, and nuts from around the world. Dagoba Chocolate has received high awards, such as Food & Wine’s 2005 “Tastemaker Award,” “World’s Best Chocolate” from CNN/Money, and “Best Dark Chocolate” from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dagoba, now owned by Hershey, is dedicated to the art of chocolate through Full Circle Sustainability, blending equity, quality, ecology, and community. The company seeks out fine flavors, sustainable and certified organic cacao through direct, equitable partnerships, and manufactures in small batches with great care. It is the goal of Dagoba to be involved in improving communities, not just where their products are sold but also at the source of its chocolate products, helping to improve the developing communities there.

Corona Insights is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

Corona Insights serves as a partner to clients needing to make decisions on a wide variety of topics. Based in Denver, Corona helps clients uncover the right answers to the questions most important to them, and then guide them on how those answers inform their decisions and plans. The firm’s mission is to provide accurate and unbiased information and counsel to decision makers. Corona works in all sectors of the community, including nonprofit organizations, private businesses, higher education institutions, and public/governmental entities. In order to meet each client group’s unique needs, Corona provides a valuable blend of research and consulting. Corona’s services range from primary and secondary market research, data analytics, and strategic planning.

Inherently, Corona’s work benefits the community. Much of their work involves helping nonprofit and governmental agencies understand the needs and desires of their clients and constituencies, and how best to implement programs and services. The community outreach philosophy of Corona Insights is based on building mutually beneficial and long-term relationships with local organizations. In this way, community involvement facilitates the firm to play an active part in their community and to promote and drive results.

Colorado State Bank and Trust is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

Colorado State Bank and Trust (CSBT) has a history of providing financial services to Colorado communities dating back to 1908. The bank offers commercial and consumer banking, investment and trust services, and mortgage origination and servicing.

With 13 Front Range locations including a branch in Boulder, CSBT has $1 billion in bank assets and over $3 billion in trust and investment assets under administration.

Serving and supporting the community is an important part of CSBT’s culture.  Not only does the bank provide financial and in-kind contributions to local nonprofit organizations but employees also honor the sense of community caring by volunteering hundreds of hours annually to a wide spectrum of nonprofit, community and civic organizations. A large part of that volunteer activity includes teaching financial education and financial responsibilities to clients, families and individuals.

CSBT is a division of BOK Financial, a regional financial services company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (NASDAQ: BOKF). BOK Financial Holdings include BOKF, N.A., BOSC, Inc., Cavanal Hill Investment Management, Inc., and Southwest Trust Company, N.A. Operating divisions of BOKF, NA include Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of Arizona, Bank of Arkansas, Bank of Oklahoma, Bank of Texas, Colorado State Bank and Trust, Bank of Kansas City, and the TransFund electronic funds network. Shares of BOK Financial are traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol BOKF.

Clif Bar & Company is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

Clif Bar & Company began as Kali’s Sweets & Savories, founded by Gary Erickson and named after his grandmother. An avid cyclist, Gary realized on a long biking trip that the energy bars he had brought along were insufficient and that he could make something better himself. Thus, the first CLIF® BAR was born. Products increased to include energy drinks and gels, LUNA® bars, CLIF MOJO® bars, CLIF Builder’s® bars, CLIF Kid Organic ZBaRs, and CLIF Kid Organic Twisted Fruit®. The company’s Five Aspirations are sustaining its company, its brands, its people, its community, and the planet. Clif builds these values into its products and programs.

At Clif Bar & Company, being a good corporate citizen is being a good community member. The firm is honest about what it does and good to its local neighbors, as in the communities where it does business. The firm also prioritizes how it treats the community of people who work for the company, both indirectly and directly. Finally, the company is devoted to doing the right thing for the planet with a serious effort to reduce its ecological footprint in everything the firm does, from the field to the final product. The firm devotes company time to volunteerism and environmental work; the company pays employees more than 2,000 hours a year to do community service.

As I look back at 2011, so many great things happened – trips to the West Bank and Finland, Strategy for Good was published, hit million mile status on United, had great work, and so much more…I am grateful!  I hope your 2011 was great.  Happy holidays and all the VERY best to you for 2012!!

Beau Jo’s Colorado Style Pizza is one of the inspiring companies interviewed for Susan Hyatt’s book, Strategy for Good.

Beau Jo’s is a Colorado-based company that owns a chain of pizza restaurants. The company is an institution in Denver, both for the thick pizzas and for the way you finish them off: with a bottle of honey in which to dip the remaining crust (“built-in dessert”). There are two types of pizzas at Beau Jo’s: the original Mountain Pies with rolled crust at the end and Prairie Pies without the roll but a thinner layer of toppings. They come with a variety of sauce options and the usual pizza toppings along with a couple of unusual signature toppings such as tofu. The restaurant allows patrons to leave their mark at each casually decorated, mining antiques-filled site by drawing on a napkin and hanging it on the wall. Denver Westword named Beau Jo’s the “Best Pizza” readers’ choice winner in 2006. The restaurant strives to use healthy fixings in its pizzas, including whole wheat and gluten-free crust, and natural ingredients and toppings whenever possible.

Idaho Springs, where Beau Jo’s began, is a small community. The company’s giving philosophy has to do with the reality that the business can only grow so much within a small community without being involved. Originally the firm began its involvement to make the community in which it operates a better place to live for the residents and a better place for the company to do business. One of the ways the firm supports the community is by establishing dates sponsored by community organizations, where 20 percent of the pre-taxed revenues are donated to the sponsoring organization.