News Roundup
Making CSR Believable: Chris Jarvis writes an excellent post on some of the core issues around CSR - how do companies create and foster trust through their investments in CSR? And what is the role of social capital in this dynamic? Here's a passage that gets to the heart of the argument: "The real question is not whether CSR will generate trust in your brand. It will. And it won’t. If you are trusted then yes, CSR will create more trust. If you’re not trusted, CSR will probably only make it worse." Read the entire post here.
The Philanthropist moves online (via Mark Blumberg's Canadian Charity Law blog): The Philanthropist is a quarterly journal that publishes articles and information of interest and assistance to managers and directors of Canadian charitable organizations and foundations, and their legal and financial directors. It recently moved to an online format, and is now free! Check out the current issue, including good articles on Charitable Tax Incentives in Canada and Mergers and Amalgamations in the Canadian Nonprofit and Charitable Sector.
Economic downturn - Crisis or Opportunity?: Joel Solomon encourages us to look at the current situation as an opportunity for transformation - both in the social sector, and in our individual living. Describing the impact it has had on his organization, Renewal Partners: "we hoped the (Renewal) model would increase our collective leverage, and the pace of change. We hoped one plus one would equal five. It appears that the timing of this downturn may mean it equals three, but we have made progress." Get inspired - read the full post here.
Responsible Investing on the Rise: The Social Investment Organization recently released the Canadian Socially Responsible Investment Review 2008, which has revealed a significant rise in investment strategies that integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into financial analysis and portfolio management. Much of this is driven by demand from investors, and is leading to the growth and consolidation of the SRI industry - as Mindy Lubber notes in her post "Is ESG Data Going Mainstream?" on HarvardBusiness.org. Head over to the SRI Monitor for additional information and analysis.
Social Innovation Fund update: There's been a lots of buzz every since the Obama Administration proposed the Social Innovation Fund to provide incentives to scale up the work of successful nonprofits. The Fund is now signed into law, and we now have more details around the Fund's intentions, including the $50 million ask for FY2010. America Forward has an detailed FAQ on what we know so far, and Nathaniel from Change.org digs even deeper. Canadian policymakers, are you following this?
