It shows 77 percent of New Zealand businesses actively contribute to the community but 60 percent do not currently measure their community involvement.
‘Business and the Community’ was commissioned jointly by BNZ and The London Benchmarking Group (LBG), global network which measures and reports on corporate community investment worldwide.
The research shows that corporate giving is motivated by range of business objectives that go beyond philanthropic sense of responsibility.
Survey responses cited corporate giving, or corporate social responsibility initiatives (CSR), as holding meaning for key stakeholders including staff and customers, yet few businesses are measuring their investment to see if results align with intentions.
A total of 570 respondents, from SMEs and larger organisations, completed the survey which was run by research organisation Horizon Poll.
Survey respondents were asked to detail the ways in which their organisation contributed to the community with cash donations and sponsorships making up almost half of the total, followed by employee time (volunteering) and ‘in kind’ support (goods or services gifted).
According to respondents the most popular sectors for corporate investment are in education and with young people, followed by health, the environment and then aid/emergency relief.
The Business and the Community survey also found:
•77 percent of organisations contribute to the community;
•81 percent believe that businesses have responsibility to practise CSR;
•60 percent of organisations do not currently measure the impact of corporate giving;
•60 percent of respondents believe that an established methodology for measuring community investment would add value;
•70 percent of respondents think company’s CSR programmes make it more desirable employer;
•80 percent of organisations do not have role dedicated to CSR;
•66 percent of organisations contributed to the Christchurch earthquake relief effort; and
•75 percent of respondents believe the business community did enough to assist the relief effort.
