CSR
What it is
CSR is responsibility in action: what the company does, not what it declares. It covers employees (working conditions, training, diversity), clients (quality, honesty), suppliers (payment terms, requirements), the territory (local jobs, associations, schools) and the environment (energy, waste, travel). ESG criteria are the reading grid used by funders; CSR is the approach seen from the inside.
For an SME
An SME has neither a CSR department nor a report to publish. Its most credible CSR is local and tellable: supporting associations of its neighbourhood or region, with visible results, that employees can cite in one sentence. "We funded this association's website, go and see it" is worth more than a page of values. Socialsponsoring brings exactly that, with a report at the end and reusable proof.
What makes a CSR action credible
- It is concrete: an amount, a project, a result, a date
- It is consistent with the company's trade or its territory
- It lasts: an action repeated every year weighs more than a one-off
- It is proven: a report, photos, links, people who testify
- It is not confused with advertising: you may talk about it, provided the result is there
Examples at the scale of an SME
- Funding the website of a neighbourhood association and showing it in the company's reception area
- Offering half a day a month of an employee (accountant, designer) to an association, as skills patronage
- Paying suppliers within thirty days and saying so
- Training employees in data protection and security, and counting it in the governance section
In Kern4Good
Sponsor companies fund websites for Belgian associations; they can cite the associations, the websites and the end-of-cohort report in their CSR communication, and the programme does so too in its thank-you campaign. The packs and their counterparts are on the Companies page. A company that wants to go further funds a whole cohort, with its region or theme, on the Create your cohort page.
Further reading
CSR and ESG, what is the difference?
CSR is the company's approach; ESG is the grid by which third parties (banks, investors, large clients) assess it. One feeds the other.
Must a CSR action be selfless?
No. An action useful to society and to the company at the same time is still a CSR action. Social sponsoring embraces this double usefulness, and that is what makes it sustainable.
Must an SME publish a CSR report?
No, the reporting obligation only targets large companies. But large clients and banks ask more and more questions; one or two documented actions are enough to answer them.
Does social sponsoring count as patronage in CSR?
No: it is an invoiced service, not a donation. In CSR communication it changes nothing to its value; in the accounts it changes everything. Say "sponsoring", it is more honest and just as valuable.