To the CEOs, Corporate Social Responsibility professionals, and most importantly, the teams and individuals that make up all the companies we work for, this is a letter for you.

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This piece talks a lot about impact, so before getting started, I think it’s best to provide a very brief backdrop to the definition of this word. This is WeHero’s definition of impact but it is relevant to the remainder of what you’ll be reading.

Impact… social impact… is a loaded word, phrase, or expectation in the world of social causes and fighting to make a difference. In our world, this word and the data that supports it is gold. The definition of success (or at least it should be). So how do we look at this word? Impact to WeHero is the ability to see positive, quantifiable results, as an outcome of donations of money or time. The goal is to always generate the greatest impact as a return on time and money given. Simple as that. Why is this word so important?

We all have opportunities to be heroes at different points of our lives. To lift someone up. To solve a problem. Make something better than it was before. It’s the kind of opportunity that comes around and when attained, gives you a rush of happiness. I think of it as the ultimate dopamine hit.

Today, those opportunities are much more than opportunities. They are needs. Needs that need heroes. If there’s anything that’s come out of COVID-19, it’s been a requirement for corporate leaders, CSR professionals, and employees to be just that: heroes. Why? Because we predict that is where the world will be turning for years to come.

COVID-19 has exposed some serious problems and has initiated some new ones, not just in our country, but across the globe. The goal we have now, or what is messaged to us when we read the news or look at advertising, is normalcy. Flatten the curve, and we’ll get back to normalcy, together. We all want normalcy. For our jobs to go back to normal. To visit the same bars with our co-workers after work. To pick up the same strategy books that have been resting on our bookshelves. But this is not business as usual. This is not a world as usual and the most substantial problems are yet to come. We all know that this goes beyond flattening the curve.

These problems, like many of our problems today, may become problems we ignore every day, not because we’re terrible people or because we don’t care about fixing them, but because we don’t have time. We’re out and about hustling to make our own lives work with the peace of mind that some government agency or nonprofit is out there trying to fix those issues. They’ll figure it out. It will all be ok!

Today, that system that we would typically rely on has been negatively impacted drastically. The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer forecasted an existing lack of trust in governments in the media, prior to the COVID-19 crisis with 69% of respondents answering that they did not have the confidence to address the countries’ challenges. Today we expect this number to be even higher. But no need to fear, we have the nonprofits!

This is where we get concerned. Nonprofits have long been seen as the ethical engine to solve problems and improve society, yet we predict we will be losing over half of them over the next 60 days with 50% of nonprofit organizations having declared they have one month of runway left before going out of business according to Benevity.

What does this mean? Recovery will be our greatest challenge not just for businesses and individuals, but for the nonprofits that were working tirelessly to build solutions in their given areas. The result of this is an array of gaps that need to be filled, solved for, but by who and how?

We now have only one place to turn, the sector of our society that has the greatest talent and resources… companies. Now, more than ever, we need companies, and the talented individuals within them, to lead the global social response, not just because this isn’t business as usual, but because this isn’t a world as usual.

We need you, the leaders, CSR professionals, and teams to be the heroes and the world is watching. The way companies respond now will define their culture, mission, and brand for the foreseeable future. But how do we tackle these substantial challenges and how do we get the resources?

If you’re going to handle your CSR program the same way or if you don’t have one, you need to start making changes now. Remember what I said above about normalcy? We won’t get there so we need to reinvent ourselves. So how does corporate social responsibility and the way companies respond need to change?

• CSR can no longer be a division in a company. CSR (or whatever you want to call it), needs to be embedded into the culture of a company now. What’s one of the best ways to do that? Your CSR leader needs to be on the executive team or your CEO needs to make this one of their top five initiatives. Social responsibility needs to be part of your company’s values, and your company needs to hold up to those values. Embed this function deep and throughout the culture of your company now. Employee buy-in is critical.
• It needs to be one of the top five initiatives for every employee. Remember, it takes more than one person or executive to make a difference. It will take everyone and it’s important that your employees are empowered and the executive team embodies the values of the company.
• Make it as easy as possible to make an impact. Remember what I said above about having busy lives? There are 44,000 virtual volunteer opportunities related to COVID-19. Having your employees dive into that alone is like trying to find impact (the needle) in a haystack (the 44,000). Curated giving and volunteer experiences will scale activation and engagement across the company. Host experiences that make giving and volunteering effortless for your team!
• Data always wins over dollars. People don’t care about the thousand or millions of dollars. Yes, it’s important, but what people really care about, and what the world really cares about, is the impact data. Refer to my definition above again. Not only do the companies need to adapt, but the nonprofits have been and will need to continue doing so to fit into this quickly evolving ecosystem. Get to data over dollars. Get to impact.
• Stop talking about your employee giving and volunteer goals externally. Stop talking about the internal metrics you’re looking to improve like brand sentiment or employee happiness ratings through your CSR program. Yes, these are nice side effects and important to the day to day operations of your company, but you’re straining the authenticity of your giving and volunteer programs by focusing on these areas. Start talking about the story and the mission that your company has and the impact goals. Now, more than ever, individuals want to be part of a story of impact. Create the story and your team will follow.
• Take volunteering one step further. This is not volunteering as usual. This is employee activation. This is educating, preparing, and inspiring your team for battle. To join the company mission and make an impact. Activate your team, and increased impact will come as a result.
• Don’t forget. While many of us join to focus all of our energy into the COVID-19 response, we have to remember the other problems that we’re leaving untended. Other natural disasters will happen. Numerous countries across the globe have substantial needs. We must do all we can to fill these gaps.
• As a leader, dig deep, think about the values of your company, and what should be important and fight for the budget. Companies that have the means should be increasing their budgets and they will see greater returns across all KPIs in the coming years. Remember, people want to work for and buy from companies that give!

I said it above and I’ll say it again: The way companies respond this year will define cultures and brands for years to come. Many of us are being forced to reinvent ourselves.

I think COVID-19 has changed our lives in many ways. Personally, it was one of the few moments in my life that I really sat back and thought about what was important to me. This particular moment happened as I was sitting at my desk, hands on my head, looking at a full inbox of event cancellations and postponements. This was a result of being a vendor in the corporate volunteer space and having 90% of our events canceled or postponed in 72 hours. At that moment, I thought about my family, my friends, my team, the things that were important to me. I then thought about what was important to WeHero, this small business that we built to empower others to do good. In writing down what was important, I started thinking about how to reinvent our company. How to survive and keep helping our clients and our nonprofit partners succeed. In those moments it hit me. I’m not the only one, and WeHero is not the only company that will have to evaluate what is important to them. I’m not the only person or company that will have to re-invent themselves. We all will. Every one of us. Every company. Because in this great reinvention, we’re all in this together, and as we all evaluate what is important to us, one thing must be certain… making an impact needs to be one of them.

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