Giving through action

I came across this interesting social enterprise that enables you to sponsor your friends through action rather than money. It’s the brainchild of Hermione Taylor and her friend who wanted to challenge themselves for a good cause but didn’t like the idea of asking their friends for money. Instead they asked their friends to sponsor them by doing simple green actions instead. This idea grew into DoNation.

It works a bit like Just-Giving, you upload your challenge, and then friends can pledge to do simple green actions such as riding a bike, washing your clothes at 30 degrees, cutting down on meat etc. Each action has a CO2 saving and so far 35,771 kg of CO2 has been saved through pledges. This doesn’t mean much to me and they’d do well to include an equivalent to put the saving into perspective; however, overall, I think it’s an interesting concept.

Like many of you, I get millions of emails from friends requesting sponsorship – especially in the lead up to the London marathon – and think this new approach is quite refreshing. It also follows hot on the heels of Do Some Good, the app from Orange that enables people to carry out actions for charity using their mobile phones. There is definitely a trend towards more innovative ways for people to give something back.

Apparently ‘CO2 is the currency of The DoNation, not the soul’, in other words it’s the only way to quantify people’s actions. This means that the actions are a bit boring and might turn more people off than on. If they could include and find a way to quantify We Are What We Do type actions, it might feel more innovative and appeal to a wider audience.

Whilst I do agree that people are more likely to change their behaviour for their friends than for the good of the planet, I’m still a little bit sceptical about whether this initiative will actually attract the attention of anyone who is not already a ‘concerned consumer'.

Telling the right stories

Writing in yesterday’s Financial Times, Michael Skapinker argues that the central problem with corporate responsibility is that what the public expects may not be what shareholders want.

What’s needed, he says, is for companies to better communicate the business value of responsible business – and to do that they need a compelling narrative.

So far so good. Gaining the understanding and support of shareholders is an important part of a successful responsible business strategy. They are, after all, key stakeholders. And there’s no shortage of messages to tell. There are the financial opportunities of growth into new markets, reaching new customers, cost savings, potential for new products, and so on, as well as the benefits of improved employee satisfaction, loyalty etc., let alone the potential for brand and reputation strengthening and differentiation.

But too often the importance of that narrative is forgotten or lost. Whilst exploring ways to get shareholders on board, Michael Skapinker gets his teeth into General Electric’s corporate citizenship report and website, lamenting the lack of storytelling to engage the reader. Why, he asks, do they tell us about supporting girls through school in Kenya without giving case studies?

Having an engaging narrative is an important part of communications, but it’s not the golden key to getting shareholders on board!

If we’re thinking about General Electric, how about talking of the 17% increase in brand value as a result of their sustainable venture ecomagination? Or the fact that ecomagination’s revenue is set to grow at twice the rate of total company revenue over the next five years, having generated $18 billion in the tough climate of 2009?

Skapinker is right that responsibility communications benefit from a good narrative. But that narrative needs the richness of business value as well as heart-warming stories, to get all stakeholders on board.