Corporate Social Impact
Turning corporate social impact into action
The role of business in society is one of the great ongoing debates of management scholars, but ultimately all organizations have a corporate social impact. It’s a question of how they seek to manage that impact.
The numbers regarding corporate social impact are clear, from our own research and the work of others:
Consumers favor brands that have commitments to doing good in their communities
Employees care about a sense of shared purpose
Executives believe shared purpose confers multiple benefits
Yet most organizations say there is a gap between purpose and execution. In a recent survey, only 46% of executives say their organization has a strong shared sense of purpose, and 37% say their business model and operations align well with their purpose.
Planning for impact
At Orangefiery, we help the leaders of corporate social impact functions create strategic plans that align organizational leaders on goals and develop programs that have a meaningful impact on society. Grounded in research and insights, we engage multiple stakeholders inside and outside a company to identify the important societal, economic and health issues that are top priorities among stakeholders. We work with company leaders to create a vision of the impact they aspire to have, prioritize issues for action, and implement programs that drive meaningful change.
At its most successful, this work will align a company’s reason for being with its “purpose” from a corporate social impact perspective. This work looks different from industry to industry and company to company. Typically, we partner closely with clients to identify the specific problem they are trying to solve, narrow down the priority stakeholders and implement engaging programs, strategic partnerships and relevant community grants while ensuring measurable and achievable outcomes.
Our teams have helped organizations create capabilities to manage grant programs, support stakeholder engagement and drive stakeholder-specific communications. Through comparator analysis and benchmarking, we ensure organizations are aware of and implementing best practices in strategic philanthropy.
See landscape research and strategic planning and facilitation.
Once corporate social impact strategies and programs have been architected, we help clients launch initiatives through advocacy engagement and strategic multi-stakeholder communications internally and externally.
Our corporate social impact team has specific expertise in:
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate philanthropy
Issue ownership
Signature programs
Thought leadership
Communications campaigns
Stakeholder engagement
Our corporate social impact team has specific expertise in:
- Landscape research
- Insights from quantitative and qualitative research
- Multi-stakeholder engagement
- Externally: Grantees, strategic partners, advocacy relations, industry thought leaders, trade associations, and media
- Internally: Leadership, internal stakeholder teams, and employees
- Leadership & team visioning and strategy workshops
- Grant program design
- Strategic partnership development
- Branding and owned channels (i.e. website, social media, etc.)
- Marketing materials
- Sponsorship opportunities
- Integrated strategic communications, including change management, executive communications, internal communications, and media relations
- Impact & measurement models
Related Capabilities
Brand
Strategy
We build corporate brands that define and differentiate a company’s role in the marketplace, which fuels real-world activation that helps clients navigate today’s dynamic, stakeholder-driven business environment.
Narrative Development
We believe in the power of narratives and have a proprietary process for building them. Our narratives are sense-making tools that tell the story of a company, issue or product and the impact it will have on the world.
Stakeholder Engagement
We know that building relationships with the stakeholders that influence your world is critical. As part of our efforts, we develop plans to identify the right stakeholders for your efforts, and engage them on activities that are aligned and impactful.
Thought Leadership
Elevating executives and their organizations to the forefront of a topic or industry is about more than ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. We develop a tailored thought leadership platform that targets the intersection of an executive’s experience and the public conversation. By distributing thought leadership content across multiple channels, we build reputation based on trust and expertise.