The Impact of CSR and Corporate Philanthropy (CP) - Performance and Trends
Objective
Our top consulting firm was actively seeking to engage with executives from leading global companies in the Middle East, including but not limited to Mansour Group, Al-Futtaim Group, Olayan Financing Company, Al Ghurair Group, Al Muhaidib Group, SAMI, and many others.
Our primary objective was to comprehensively understand how these companies manage their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Philanthropy (CP) spending on various initiatives. We aimed to uncover the driving forces behind these initiatives and their impact on the overall performance of these companies.
Challenge
A research firm contacted us on behalf of a leading payments company for the launch of a new payment solution for commercial banks that can help their B2B/HNW customers with smooth and fast domestic, cross-border, and international payments through debit and credit cards.
The client wanted to understand how to connect and engage with HNWIs and B2B customers and position their new payment solution to help commercial banks adopt it successfully. The research also wanted to uncover the key benefits that banks seek from payment solutions and how these offerings can solve their challenges.
Approach
- Liquid Sample focused on identifying and approaching communications heads, VP, Communications / SVP communications / Communications, and Sustainability Leads in large Middle East organizations. Through our expertise in custom audience sourcing and recruitment, we recruited 12 senior CSR, CP, and sustainability experts in Riyadh, Dubai, Jordan, and Kuwait from companies with over 5,000 employees.
- We conducted ninety-minute in-depth interviews with these experts to gain valuable insights and expertise.
Results
-
Comprehensive 90-minute interviews were conducted with top CSR, CP, and sustainability experts, leading to the discovery of invaluable and decisive insights across the following:
- The execution framework of Corporate Philanthropy (CP), overall journey of CP from budget to impact measurement. Similarity, if any, with CSR framework or different framework.
- Tax benefits associated with CSR and corporate philanthropy.
- Execution models for CP initiatives: partnership (3rd party consultants), internal giving (doing it by themselves), and corporate foundations. Percentage split of companies utilizing these models and reasons for higher adoption.
- Disparities in expected and actual impact mapped by corporations while executing CSR and the percentage of initiatives that meet the desired objectives.
- The CSR, CP, and sustainability initiatives that your company executes in the Middle East and other countries.
- Has the expenditure on CSR and CP evolved over the past five years regarding percentage or absolute value?
- The percentage that your company is spending among all three dimensions (environment, ethical, and social) of CSR.
- What is the recent trend in global CSR spending, and where has the maximum growth occurred?
- The insights gained from the expert consultation provided evidence-based data, which was instrumental in helping the client formulate strategic recommendations. These recommendations were related to the impact of CSR initiatives on the company’s performance, emerging CSR and sustainability trends, and making informed decisions regarding CSR investments.