When the corporation’s mantra is to save the world
Partnerships between companies, aid organizations can’t be taken at face value
When Peter Bakker, CEO of global courier company TNT Express, withdrew his marketing investment from a rugby sponsorship in 2003 and instead announced a partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), some shareholders were taken aback.
A marketing sponsorship with a sports team was easy to explain; awareness and brand loyalty through association could be measured through any uptick in sales. But forming a partnership with an organization addressing an issue that is usually the domain of governments? That was harder to understand.
To Bakker, the logic was straightforward. He wanted to address “the urgency of the worldwide food crisis . . . raging over the world like a silent tsunami,” and WFP was the vehicle he could help to meet that objective.
Logistics were his company’s core competency and a cash-strapped relief organization in dire need of help getting food, blankets and first aid to disaster zones could make good use of his company’s planes and expertise.
Something needed to be done, insisted Bakker, and if one of the world’s largest express-delivery companies — with more than151,000 employees, and revenue of € 6.7 billion ($9.8 billion) couldn’t help, then who could?
“Usually what happens is that people will gather together to address a societal issue, and come up with a vision that often goes beyond the budget of what’s in the public purse,” explains Helle Bank Jorgensen, head of the United Nations Global Compact Network Canada, an organization that helps corporations address sustainable development goals. “Partnerships with the corporate sector to help realize a plan have a broader impact, taking it from average to visionary.”
On balance, both investors and governments cheer these partnerships, and the public response has been positive. Corporations are part of the community. From Manulife celebrating volunteerism to Unilever investing in community kitchens, such investments from the corporate sector are now commonplace.
Take for instance Royal Bank, which has made a 10-year commitment of $50 million to help provide access to “drinkable, swimmable, fishable water.”
“On water, we wanted to make the invisible visible,” explains Lynn Patterson of the RBC Blue Water Project. “Our annual survey shows that as invaluable as it is to life, we Canadians don’t see the connection between our actions and the quality of our water, which we think is so abundant.”
“Once people become aware that the discarded cigarette butts you see by a stormwater grate take 11 to 13 years to decompose, or that we’re going to need an army of hydrological engineers to address the growing impact of extreme weather occur- rences, people want to get involved,” Patterson continues. “This is why we support a range of initiatives, from community shoreline cleanups to universities training up the next generation of problem solvers.”
Engaging in community investment is not without peril. The University of Toronto still takes heat for accepting the donation of Barrick Gold to support their international relations department. Opponents feel the university is now restricted from addressing human-rights violations committed by mining com- panies.
Coca-Cola was recently called out for contributing $1.5 million to a non-profit founded to combat obesity, going so far as to edit the organization’s mission statement. The nonprofit was spearheading a campaign to counter “the shrill rhetoric of public health extremists.”
Whether these are missteps from overenthusiastic corporations or mal-intended efforts from the outset, the ethical consumer can’t be naive and blindly accept these corporate efforts at face value. We need to listen to the non-profits, ask them about their screening tests and weigh the honesty of the corporate commitment. If a company’s marketing spend championing its new partnership is greater than its contribution to that non-profit, that’s a good sign their heart isn’t in the right place.
As a consumer, be thankful for a corporation that’s engaged in the community, since their efforts enrich our lives. At the same time, keep your eyes open to anything that doesn’t pass the altruism smell test.