Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Center

Finding Hope in 2020 By: John Friedman, Manager, Sustainability for WGL 2020 was a bad year for many many people. Far too many of us have suffered, and far too many have died. But while it is easy and important to remember the losses and the suffering, human beings get through the hardest times when [...]

Influencing Young America to Act - 2020 Year in Review By: Derrick Feldmann, Managing Director at Influence|SG Three overlapping major moments in less than a year - a pandemic, George Floyd's death and the election—offered what was likely a unique opportunity in our ongoing study of young Americans' social issue actions. Throughout 2020, Cause [...]

Global Declines in Happiness By: Bea Boccalandro, Founder and President of VeraWorks A report by the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen suggests that the 2020 global decline in happiness is as sharp as all eight billion of us divorcing at once would have caused. The study also found that for every 100 new COVID-19 cases another 7,200 people, [...]

Five reasons to be optimistic about 2021 By: David Hessekiel, President, Engage for Good We’re all thrilled to see 2020 come to an end but predictions of a long, hard winter still loom large. With a vaccine rollout imminent, we're cautiously optimistic that a new year will bring new possibilities for the social impact [...]

What I Learned from Battling a Behemoth Email By: Lisa Noury, Director, U.S. Corporate Internal Communications of Bayer U.S.  Keeping things simple. Making communications easy to read. If you’re a writer like me, you know it can be far from easy to make things simple and stay inspired as a writer. Oh, the battles [...]

How Purpose Transforms People and Communities By: Akhtar Badshah, PhD. Chief Catalyst, Catalytic Innovations Group  Purpose Mindset: How Microsoft Inspires Employees and Alumni to Change the World What motivates people to give? In his book The Purpose Economy, Alan Hurst discovered that in any company or group, you can generally place people into [...]

Do Employee Stories Matter to Reputation? By: Lisa Noury, Director, Corporate Internal Communications, Bayer U.S. When you do research, you find out interesting things. But when you discover a truly valuable insight, you realize the money you spent was worth it. Back in 2019, we did research on our Bayer Scapes blogs—a weekly blog [...]

Choosing Dialogue for Positive and Healthy Social Change By: Jerome Tennille, Manager of Volunteerism for Marriott International We’ve wandered into what I believe is unchartered territory for most of us. Sure, while America’s historically faced similar social tipping points like we’re facing today, I suspect this time is different. It’s my estimation that it’s [...]

The McPherson Memo Live with Sesame Workshop By: Susan McPherson, Founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies Susan McPherson, CSR expert,  hosts #McPhersonMemoLive Chat on Facebook Live. This discussion is with Sherrie Westin — President of Social Impact and Philanthropy at Sesame Workshop. They discuss the organization’s crucial work supporting the mental health of families and [...]

Creating Purpose During the Pandemic – Moving from “Me” to “We” By: Akhtar Badshah, PhD. Chief Catalyst, Catalytic Innovations Group How “bridging networks” can bring communities together for the common good The year 2020 has been like no other.  I am looking out of my window seeing blue skies and blue water in the [...]