Image of a work team coming together for a group fist bump | Featured Image for the Corporate Social Responsibility & CSR Programs Blog from Future Fitouts

5 Ways Your Business Can Improve Their Corporate Social Responsibility

Being in business isn’t all about making money and turning over profit. You also have a responsibility to the community you operate in – and in helping out your community, you can reap rewards for your business in return. This is most commonly referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR Programs.

In most cases, companies want to do the right thing by their community and get involved, but many don’t know where to start! At Future Fitouts, doing what we can to support our community through our regular CSR Programs and partnerships are a key value for our business.

By showing that you support and are involved in your local community, the members of that community are more likely to do business with you, because they know you’re an ethically minded business.

So how do you get involved?

Support a Charity

Why not choose one or more charities for your business to support and provide a donation to them at regular intervals? Charitable donations and partnerships have long-been a stable in many corporate social responsibility initiatives. Knowing that your business is supporting a good cause helps to give your company more purpose. You could even get your employees involved by collaborating with them to decide on what charity your company should create a CSR Program for.

There are a number of great organisations out there who can help your business make meaningful contributions to worthwhile causes. Buy1Give1 (B1G1) is a great example. B1G1 helps businesses generate measurable, long-lasting impacts with an easy-to-use system that allows a portion of every transaction to be given to a worthy cause.

The idea behind B1G1 is that every time a business sells something, they give something back, and businesses can easily do this by including a small donation with every product or service sold.

Whether you choose to go it alone or to be part of a company like Buy1Give1, when deciding on what charity to support, try picking a good cause that’s relevant to your business or industry. For example, a hospitality establishment may support a food drive or a pet hotel could donate to an animal shelter.

Photo of people in a marathon dressed like santa

Volunteer

Many businesses will organise corporate social responsibility events for the team so everyone can bond, get to know each other and ultimately work better together, but have you ever considered doing volunteer work with your team? Not only will you be doing something meaningful for the community together, but it’s also a great way for your team to co-operate and build a connection with each other.

There are many corporate CSR Programs you can take advantage of such as:

Take Part in a Charity Event

When we say ‘take part’, this could either mean attending an event, organising an event or sponsoring an event such as a fun run, high tea, charity ball, raffle or fundraiser. By hosting an event, this helps to generate value for the charity without needing to ask your employees to donate.

Being part of a charity event can also do wonders for your team’s morale. With a charity fun run, your whole team can get involved while also being encouraged to stay active. Or hosting a high tea can allow your staff to show off their creative baking skills while being social with colleagues.

If you don’t have the resources to host a full event, auctioning or raffling off a few valuable donated items can be a great way to give back to a good cause. You can also host a corporate social responsibility fundraiser to connect with and generate donations in the wider community.

Sponsor a Local Club or Sporting Team

If you want to improve your corporate social responsibility within the local community, consider scoping out a local sports team to sponsor. Many of these small sporting clubs rely on the money provided by their sponsors to survive and the community really gets behind these teams. You also get the added benefit of additional promotions either on the jerseys or shorts for the team, on the field during gameplay or on the website – depending on your sponsorship agreement.

CSR Programs, such as sponsoring a local team helps to generate positive word of mouth for your company while also having the added benefit of promoting your business. When a business sponsors a local sporting team, those players and supporters see that supporter as a friend and a valuable member of the community.

Make Conscious Business Choices

Many businesses make decisions every day that have an impact on the community both locally and globally, so remember to be conscious about those decisions you make and their impact. These corporate social responsibility decisions can include buying environmentally-friendly alternatives or even choosing to have your business finances managed by a bank who invests their money ethically.

Even the smallest CSR Programs can make a big impact. For example, at Future Fitouts, we choose to purchase toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap – made from 100% recycled paper and 50% of their profits go towards building toilets for those in need.

Future Fitouts Gives Back

At Future Fitouts, we’re big supporters of corporate social responsibility and giving back to our community and as of 1st July 2017, Future Fitouts is a proud B1G1 business, keep an eye out for our impacts and how we are ‘changing the world by transforming spaces. Our CSR Programs regularly support local charities and participate in community fundraisers and events. We’re also dedicated to partnering with small businesses to help them grow and thrive.

Every business has the ability to be part of the wider community they operate in and we hope your company will have the courage to give back and take on one of these methods of support.

For more information or to reach out to our office fit out team, call us on 1300 368 461 or you can get in touch online!

Updated: 16/02/2022