Corporate and social sector organisations: how interconnected are they?

Sara Cocomazzi (April ’14) shares her thoughts on how interconnected are the two worlds of corporate and social sector organisations.

I have two passions: marketing communications and helping people in need. Since I started volunteering in 2008, I kept wondering how I could combine these and use my work experience, skills and expertise to improve people’s lives.Should I stay in the corporate world, or should I pursue a career in the social sector? I decided to join the On Purpose social enterprise leadership programme to help me answer this question.

During my first On Purpose placement I worked at Community Development Foundation (CDF), a social enterprise supporting communities’ growth and engagement. My project was to launch “Love Your Community”, a quality mark which demonstrates good community engagement practice in small and medium sized businesses.‘’Love your Community’’ is also a way to help businesses evidence that they meet the requirements of the Social Value Act* for public sector procurements. While working on this project, I found that the two worlds of commercial businesses and social sector organisations were more interconnected than I had previously thought. Here are some of the things I found out:

Expertise gained in the corporate world is valuable in the social space and vice versa

My prior corporate experience in marketing and communications was relevant for developing and executing the launch strategy for the “Love Your Community” quality mark, and I felt it brought new perspectives to the project. At the same time, at CDF I had the opportunity to engage with a broader range of stakeholders, especially with businesses that work closely with their communities, tackling several social issues and generating positive social impact along with profits. This helped me understand how can corporates create social impact, without compromising their duty of maximizing shareholders’ wealth.

Businesses and communities both benefit from community-driven products and services

I was impressed by the active role many SMEs play in their local communities. Globechain is one of the first “Pioneer” businesses going through the “Love Your Community” accreditation process. It’s an online social platform which connects charities, individuals and businesses, to enable them to reuse unwanted items in their supply chain, reducing unnecessary landfill and costs of disposal.

During the “Love Your Community” launch event which took place last September, Kevin McLoughlin, Managing Director of K&M McLoughlin Decorating Ltd, which is another enterprise going through the “Love Your Community” accreditation process, explained why their community engagement work and their apprenticeship scheme is helping their business: “Communities add value to our business. We win contracts because we train local people. Training local talent makes money.”

As Alison Seabrooke, CEO of Community Development Foundation, wrote in this article, businesses are looking at new ways of doing good such as “shared value business models”, “impact investing” and “triple bottom lines” which adopt a holistic approach to the organisation. “These concepts look at how a business applies its core assets — people, brand, products, supply chain and capital — through its business model to generate value for both the society and its shareholders. Companies that can effectively demonstrate social value benefit commercially from doing so.

Corporates and social sector organisations both win through collaboration

On one hand, businesses are able to provide necessary resources to social organisations to enable them to achieve their social mission; this can include funding, pro bono skilled consultancy work, mentoring, and geographical reach which helps social organisations scale. On the other hand, social sector organisations provide businesses with a way to explore meaningful purpose. This allows corporates to create positive social impact in their communities. This can have a variety of benefits, from cash savings through to improving workforce engagement, customer loyalty, relationships with local stakeholders.

This has got me thinking; the two worlds are indeed more interconnected than I realised. Anyone can create social value, no matter whether they work for the profit or non-profit world. The ‘how’ matters a lot more that the ‘where’ you work.

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* New rules brought in under The Social Value Act 2012 mandate that all public sector commissioners must now incorporate social value into their decision-making process. The opportunities for businesses that show they can deliver social value, as well as providing a needed service, are potentially huge.”(see: http://cdf.org.uk/social-value).