The New CSR: Donating Business Expertise

By: Kristin Rosella, Program Associate, Strategic Partnerships, Women Deliver

Over the past several years, a new form of corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) has emerged—one in which the business world is donating more than money or products, but rather, the very expertise, knowledge, and skill that make businesses successful. The goal is to expand the traditional model of CSR to help nonprofits run more efficiently and effectively—that is, well, more like a business. This allows these organizations to reach more people, operate more quickly and cheaply, and save a greater number of lives.  

Companies, like UPS, have adopted this form of CSR and are teaching their trade crafts—like supply chain management, warehouse management, and commodity tracking—to partner relief organizations around the world; including UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and CARE USA. This learning is changing the way that partnerships and organizations function, approaching collaboration in a way that optimize resources, improve efficiency, and increase capabilities.

“It’s another form of corporate responsibility that I think is really key,” said Josette Sheeran, World Food Program Executive Director. “Can you help us be as good as you are—in our world of saving lives and hunger—in all these efficiencies and controls?”

Similar to the emergency relief context, this expanded version of the traditional CSR model is also applicable in the maternal health context. One of the biggest challenges in maternal health is a lack of access to critical supplies, such as contraceptives, oxytocin, misoprostol, magnesium sulfate, and manual vacuum aspirations. This lack of access can take many forms—sometimes, women cannot reach a health facility because the clinic is hours and miles away, while other times, women arrive to find it is out of the supplies they need.

Bringing business thinking and skills to the maternal health world could help solve some of these challenges, thereby saving time and money for governments and organizations and helping to improve the lives of millions of girls and women. Here are a few ways that companies could contribute:

• Lend logistics expertise to help enhance supply chains and ensure that contraceptives and maternal health supplies were available for all girls and women;
• Offer leadership expertise to help train public sector health providers and eliminate inefficiencies; 
• Donate technological expertise to help governments and organizations track and forecast reproductive and maternal health supplies; and
• Provide management expertise to help improve overall health infrastructures.

To read more about how business is donating its expertise, click here.
To read about challenges in reproductive and maternal health supplies, click here.