The Rise of Crowdsourcing in Corporate Social Responsibility

In the past few years, we've seen several high-profile corporate social responsibility programs (CSR), in particular the Pepsi Refresh Project (a client of ours), Chase Community Giving and Target's Bullseye campaign, dominate the conversation of how companies are making a social impact.

Any guesses as to the common element across these efforts?

Crowdsourcing.

Corporations have inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to action through crowdsourcing -- asking them to provide ideas and help in decision-making on how to tackle social issues and invest corporate resources.

To be fair, these efforts have also sparked a healthy debate, particularly in the nonprofit sector, about the merits of crowdsourcing in CSR. For example, some people question whether the value it creates offsets any challenges it may introduce for individuals or nonprofits that participate. I believe it does, if implemented in the right ways, and have written about when crowdsourcing is most successful.

In response to the conversation around crowdsourcing, the Weber Shandwick Social Impact team, which I lead, decided to research the role of crowdsourcing and social media in CSR. Working in partnership with KRC Research, we interviewed more than 200 senior executives in large-size companies with responsibilities for philanthropy, social responsibility and community relations.

Our goal was to assess how widely crowdsourcing was used and whether it was valuable to corporations, and to examine the impact of social media in communicating about CSR. Here's what we learned:

• The value of crowdsourcing is widely recognized by executives. A sizable forty-four percent of executives we surveyed say they have used crowdsourcing. Among them, an overwhelming 95 percent reported that it was valuable to their organization's CSR programming.
• Surfacing new perspectives and diverse opinions is cited as the greatest value of crowdsourcing. Other benefits include: Building engagement and relationships with key audiences, inviting clients and customers from nontraditional sources to contribute ideas and opinions, and bringing new energy into the process of generating ideas and content.
• Social media is at the center of CSR communications: Seventy-two percent of executives said they have used social media and 59 percent believe it has had a positive impact on their communications with consumers. Interestingly, those executives consider Facebook most valuable (67%), followed by blogs (60%), LinkedIn (58%), Twitter (46%) and Foursquare (44%).

With these findings in mind, the question now is how companies will bring further innovation to crowdsourcing their future CSR efforts. I expect it's going to be an exciting arena to work in - with the potential for greater transparency and engagement around corporations' work on key social issues and deeper and more meaningful relationships between customers and corporations.

 

Comments

[Kringle]

11:37 AM on 02/14/2011

Given modern informatio­n systems and communicat­ions technologi­es, "transparen­cy" should be readily available to "We the Taxpayer".

How is it acceptable for "our" government to turn their surveillan­ce upon us, treating us as criminals, while pretending incompeten­ce and hiding behind lackluster public-fac­ing informatio­n systems?

[DudleyHanks]

01:58 AM on 02/14/2011

Any bets on how long it'll be till corporations start outsourcing crowdsourcing?

[Kringle]

05:38 PM on 02/12/2011

Is it time for Crowdsourcing Government?

"Taxation without Representation" keeps coming to mind...

[justcallgaby]

09:54 AM on 02/11/2011

Corporations are in business to make money. Period. And, with rare exceptions, CSR campaigns aren't created because somebody in the corner office has a soft heart - or a guilty conscience - but rather because it's a win/win for everybody involved:

CSR initiatives contribute to the social good...involve consumers in a charitable pursuit without having to invest much time or money...engage that consumer with the brand in a positive way and on an emotional level...while the brand gets to reap many benefits, ranging from valuable consumer psycho- and demographics to brand loyalty and incremental sales increases.

What's not to like?

[Pippen]

08:28 AM on 02/11/2011

The author makes this topic sound like it came out of a business 101 class from 1960.

Corporations rarely if ever use this method to "do good". They use it to find out how their customer base is going to react when they raise their rent structure on their properties, how they will respond when they find out the new "fee" on their bill is to cover outsourcing their service to India.

They use it to find out if a community will cooperate with a public image project wrapped up in a pretty visible package of bows and ribbons but really has no substance because they get a government tax incentive of millions of dollars to participate in community relations.

If you want to report on something, report to the people which companies are doing the right thing. I mean really, we all know right from wrong just report it. It'll be a short list shouldn't take long.

[kajames]

04:22 AM on 02/11/2011

As a huge crowdsourcing fan, I completely agree that corporations have probably gotten a lot of benefits from using it. I feel The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki really does this topic justice. The thing I find most interesting about the use of crowdsourcing in this case, is that the corporations aren't just getting the greater efficiency with how to allocate donations/funds, but they also get the consumer involved in both the company and the outcome, which must help their bottom line as well.

[mjdhopkins]

11:03 PM on 02/10/2011

Kind of annoys me to see how limited CSR is seen in the USA. Social impact..Yes! But what about socially responsible restructuring, socially responsible shareholders, and dare I say it, socially responsible Board members and not just the non-Exec Board Members!