Calling All Green Citizens 5/25/09

Corporate and Citizen Social Responsibility - CCSR

Did anyone else notice in the press that at the White House Correspondents dinner recently that they announced they had skipped dessert and that expense was donated to a hunger charity? How great is that! Community giveback from the big white house in D.C..

This type of charity and support of the local community is what Corporate Social Responsibility is all about. And, this is why I suggest that we add a second C to CSR to include ourselves, the Citizens.

Social responsibility can, and should be an everyday awareness and it doesn’t have to be only Big Business that is leading the way. We have entered the age of responsibility and to really embrace this paradigm shift, “we the people” need to embrace our opportunities for change with as much fervor as we expect our Corporate Leaders and National regulators to. As fast as we decide that this new environment is full of opportunity we see all of the possibilities before us.

Case in point. I currently chair the education for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners Association (FICP) and a year ago when I was moderating a breakout session on CSR I was inspired by our panelists and stated that at the 2009 FICP Education Forum in Colorado Springs, CO, we would hold a community giveback event. Over the last 8 months we organized a charity committee and set out to choose a local charity and design this event.

We first of all looked at what was routine with this annual program and realized that our request for a sponsor to provide conference tote bags was unnecessary, we all had been given a lifetime of totes already. We had chosen the Boys and Girls Club of the Pikes County Region as our charity recipient and we realized why not ask the tote sponsor to purchase backpacks instead. The attendees can use them for the conference and then turn them in onsite where they will be donated as gently used for the children of the Club.

Once we embraced this idea we had the inspiration to include something in the backpacks for the kids. Our travel industry suppliers on the committee suggested that we put together a Colorado vacation that we could auction off at the conference and give the proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club. The Club was thrilled. With the auction proceeds they could buy snacks for the children’s backpacks, and, they would send them home with these on a Friday. The Club doesn’t have a weekend program and many of these children don’t have sufficient nutrition over the weekends.

We didn’t’ stop there. Last January when we made a trip to our host hotel we discovered that there is a Broadway size stage in our ballroom and were stymied with how to address this space. This is our annual education forum and we don’t budget for décor and entertainment. Once again, we thought of the Club. We are using a stunning photo of the, Garden of the Gods, in the foothills of the Rockies at Colorado Springs for the cover of our conference program. So, we asked the Club if they would like to host a painting contest with their children and they said that they did so every spring. Now, we are providing them with stenciled outlines of the cover photo for their contest and they are hosting a contest to pick the top 50 paintings. The winning paintings will be hung on the stage as our décor for the general sessions during the contest and the finalists get to join us one afternoon of the conference for a miniature golf tournament. That evening the Club’s Student of the Year will give their winning presentation and we will hold the live auction.

Our attendees get to know some of the club’s children first hand, and, the children will have a glimpse into our world. Corporate and Citizen good work. Corporate and Citizen Social Responsibility - CCSR

Watch for my next blog posting on, Carbon Consciousness and the Age of Responsibility.

Be Well, Behave and Be Green

Kim is on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009.