As 2008 is nearly at an end I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight some of the successes and achievements of City Action, our business clients and community partners over the past year.

Despite the difficult economic circumstances, City Action’s business clients have continued to be a great source of support to our City-fringe community partners - we have seen a healthy 18% increase in skills-based volunteering over the past year.  Businesses new to employee volunteering are continuing to launch community involvement programmes with the help of City Action - we have seen a 40% increase in the number of programmes launched this year compared to 2007 which is extremely encouraging.

Over a third of City Action’s community partners have benefitted from the very generous donations of resources from City businesses, ranging from meeting room space to new computers - all of which are extremely valuable to local organisations with very limited capacity.

City Action has also seen a significant increase in the number of community organisations seeking our support in 2008 - as our new community partners recognise the huge benefits of involving businesses in helping to deliver or improve their services to the local community.

Developing cross-sectoral networking, knowledge sharing and increased understanding is a key part of City Action’s service.  Over 70 City businesses and 50 community organisations attended City Action events in 2008 which have included three ‘Community Tours’ of the London Boroughs Islington, Camden and Tower Hamlets, a Partnerships workshop and a ‘Celebration of 10 years of City Action’ Networking Event.

I thought I would round this posting off with a few memorable quotes from City Action’s volunteering activity feedback forms this year, as we look forward to an even better 2009!

Employee Volunteers:

‘An overwhelming sense of achievement at helping such a wonderful charity’ 

‘I really feel like I am helping people develop whilst at the same time I am enjoying the happiness it gives to the children, young people, families, volunteers and staff!’

Community Organisations:

‘I just want to say how positive we feel it has been working with City Action - we feel that a real momentum is building with our corporate volunteering.’

‘Many of the children won’t get much adult interaction and if they do its often not positive…..the volunteers are great at interacting with the kids in a fun, friendly and supportive way, which is fantastic.’

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at City Action! The blog will return in January 2009…..

Last night I attended Gerry Acher’s inaugural lecture at the RSA. Gerry, Chair of the RSA is involved in CSR in a number of different ways, not least as Chair of Heart of the City and a member of the Final Judging Panel for the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards.

The lecture, entitled ‘Corporate Responsibility: thrive, die or be sidelined through the quest for profit’ could not have been better timed in terms of the current economic climate. The key points looked at how CSR started, where we are today, the effect of the current economic climate and where Gerry sees its future.

To me, the main question that the lecture raised was that of responsibility. Gerry cited three stages of Corporate Responsibility (CR) that companies worked through in their development: 1. Philanthropy - be it in cash, in-kind support or volunteers’ time. 2. Risk Management - including the management of reputation and the avoidance of ‘own goals’. 3. The whole-hearted embedding of CR into a business - operating with trust and transparency, and ultimately reaping business advantages in the process. This reminded me of another talk I had been too which discussed similar stages, except there were four - a new and much more basic stage 1, that of a business acting in a responsible way - paying taxes, making returns to shareholders etc.

Hold that thought, while I introduce you to another interesting insight of Gerry’s. He talked about how many companies currently look at CR in a ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ fashion. In other words, that from some angles they will look very passionate about CR and in others shy away from it completely. One example he used was Starbucks, who have done fantastic work in championing transparency and openness in their supply chains, a good example of a strong CR policy. On the other hand, they continue to open stores in small towns and villages, what is often too detrimental effect to local business.

Thinking about the pick ‘n’ mix attitude, and the various stage of CR, it occurred to me that recently we have seen this in striking terms in the banking sector. Many (if not all) the large banks, it can be claimed have acted in a way that is completely irresponsible. They could not claim to even pass the first stage in CR. However, a number of them have exceptional corporate community involvement schemes that are leading the way in this field. This to me, seems like the ultimate pick ‘n’ mix.

Dwelling on this further, I also realised that as a CR professional it can be hard. Although many banks employ a Head of CR or CR Manager, none of these roles cover the responsible commercial actions of a business. I am sure no CR manager would have dreamed it within their remit to suggest, for example, an end to short selling of shares by their employer. Yet, without this sort of responsibility, surely we are all failing at the first stage?

I know that there is always a lot of debate about the language of CR. Pretty much every talk I have ever been to on the subject starts by looking at the many different terms that can be used. Maybe the time has come for businesses to look at the term ‘responsibility’ seriously.

Welcome to the new City Action blog, hosted by City Action, the City of London Corporation’s free employee volunteering broker service.  This blog is an important, additional service for the many members of the business and charitable sectors who are working together on valuable programmes that benefit their local communities. 

The City of London Corporation is committed to developing opportunities for City businesses to support the surrounding local communities that contain high levels of social and economic disadvantage.  Worthwhile activities such as employee volunteering, gift in kind donations, local procurement and recruitment programmes are undertaken by many businesses - but there’s plenty of room for more involvement!

As an inclusive online service, this blog has the added benefit of reaching businesses and charities beyond the boundaries of the City.  Whether you are a charity manager, a CSR professional, an employee volunteer or an individual who has benefited from a local programme, I encourage as many of you as possible to contribute a blog posting so we all can share and learn from your experience.

With your contributions, this blog will become a useful resource for anyone active in community involvement programmes - I hope to read your stories, understand your opinions or perhaps learn some ‘best practice’ tips over the coming months.

I am also looking forward to seeing many ‘hot topics’ covered such as the effect of the credit crunch on community involvement activities; the true value of employee volunteers to community organisations; and the increased focus on environmental issues within businesses and their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

So, it’s now over to you - with your help City Action is hoping to shape this blog into an informative, honest and open forum.  To make the blog easily accessible it has a dedicated area within the City Action website as well as an RSS feed service - so there’s no excuse not to get involved!