According to Grant Thornton’s 15th Survey of U.S. Business Leaders, 77% of executives say that corporate responsibility will have a major impact on their business strategies over the next few years, and 76% agree it can enhance a company’s profitability. Read the survey report, Corporate responsibility: Burden or opportunity?, conducted in partnership with BusinessWeek Research Services, to find out how business leaders are answering such questions as: ...

Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine recently released its list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2007. The list is developed through extensive analysis that measures companies against social and environmental characteristics of a good corporate citizen. Read more at: http://www.thecro.com/?q=node/304 ...

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual survey of Corporate Giving programs, "Companies continue to grapple with how best to measure their philanthropic efforts, with some changing their focus to be better able to show results." (See full article here) ...

Came across a cool charity today, that had a neat mission, and an even neater way of illustrating its impact. World Bicycle Relief (WBR) pretty much says what it is: they provide bicycles to third world countries for disaster and poverty relief. So simple. But how in the world do you measure the impact of a bicycle? ...

Deirdre McCloskey, a professor of economics, English and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of the new book, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, suggests that Adam Smith’s invisible hand is actually a giving and benevolent one. ...

RED is the new...red. Once a metonymic reference for communism, RED is now one of the hottest signifiers of capitalistic social responsibility (CSR) in the West. The brainchild of Bono and Bobby Shriver, the RED concept is centered on enlisting companies to create special "red" products, a portion of whose profits -- about 40% to 50% -- is given to the global AIDS fund for its work in Africa. ...

Fortune Magazine senior writer Betsy Morris recently took the bold move of going head-to-head with the Six Sigma master himself, former GE CEO Jack Welch, by developing seven “new rules” for corporate leadership in the 21st century. ...

In our June 20 post, I reported on a Fleishman-Hillard study that suggests consumers see positive employee treatment (and not donations or environmental record) as the most important aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights a growing trend of companies taking yet, a further step in employee treatment: allowing employees paid sabbatical time to work with nonprofits on projects of social or environmental significance. ...

I came across an invaluable article on the business merits of corporate philanthropy. Back in November 05, Business Week did a story on the business benefits derived by Altria, Target, Wal-Mart, General Mills and other mega-corporations derived from their community involvement/philanthropy. It's definitely worth reading. Also a great article to share with C-level executives in building the business case for enlightened corporate giving. ...

Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, has made headlines recently for his intention to spend more time running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Warren Buffett's unprecedented $30 billion donation to the foundation. But Gates is also using philanthropy outside his foundation to build Microsoft's brand name and market share. ...