CSR Communication: Concepts, Models & Approaches

1. CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS AND CSR
COMMUNICATION:
EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA
Alin Stancu
Georgiana Florentina Grigore
Ioana Cepoi
BUCHAREST ACADEMY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES

2. Contents
1. CSR, Communication and Stakeholders - The Relationship between the Three
Concepts
2. Theoretical perspectives on corporate foundations
3. Corporate foundations in the Romanian context. Method
4. Corporate foundations in the Romanian context. Findings
5. Research Methodology
6. Findings
7. Conclusion

3. 1. CSR, Communication and Stakeholders - The
Relationship between the Three Concepts
1.1. Corporate Social Responsibility
1.2. CSR Communication
 nonfinancial reports
 stakeholder dialogue
1.3. Stakeholder Theory
 to identify the relevant group that require attention from
companies and their features
 to explore the relationship between the company and its
stakeholders and the nature of this relationship
1.4. CSR communication and Reputation
Morsing et al., 2008:
 The expert CSR communication process
 The endorsed CSR communication

4. 2. Theoretical perspectives on corporate
foundations
• Foundations classification: grant-making and operating foundations (UN
Handbook); grant-making, operating and other foundations (Centre for Social
Investment, 2008) - the latter group includes corporate (company
sponsored), community and fundraising foundations.
• Corporate foundation is “an independent legal entity established by its parent
for-profit company. It is governed by a board that may include members of the
corporation board or contributions committee, other staff members, and members
of the community. The corporate foundation is a vehicle for promoting corporate
citizenship or corporate philanthropy” (Centre for Social Investment, 2008, p. 3)
• Creating corporate foundations is a way in which corporations choose to externalise
(partially or totally) CSR activities to a non-profit entity. In general, corporate
foundations are affiliated with companies that integrate a long-term CSR strategy in
their core activity, and are dedicated to sustain social and environmental
development. Although corporate foundations are established like independent
entities, in some cases they respond to mission or objectives set up by their
sponsoring company, and they aim to contribute to the development of the society.

5. 3. Corporate foundations in the Romanian
context. Method
In order to explore the Romanian corporate foundations and their role in CSR
communication, in this section the paper presents a qualitative research based on case
studies. A sample of 200 companies was selected by their turnover (Biz Magazine Top,
November 2010) with the purpose of discovering which of these companies adopt
corporate foundations as a tool of social involvement. In order to meet this objective,
several questions were taken into account:
 How many companies have corporate foundation associated?
 What are the main areas addressed by corporate foundations?
 How is the mission of corporate foundations integrated in their strategic planning?
 Which are the categories of stakeholders identified by the corporate foundations?
Data was collected from the foundations webpages between May 2011 and July 2011.
Where the information was missing on the foundations` website, data was obtained
from the companies’ webpages under the section “corporate social responsibility”.

6. 4. Corporate foundations in the Romanian
context. Findings
4.1.The existence of corporate foundations as a way of social involvement
From the total sample of 200 companies analysed, 9.5% are employing corporate foundations as
social involvement (21 corporate foundations).
4.2.Areas Addressed by Corporate Foundations
• 63,15% of the corporate foundations are supporting social aspects (e.g.: Vodafone
Foundation, Sensiblu Foundation, UPC Foundation, McDonalds Foundation, Romtelecom
Foundation);
• 52,63% are active actors in sustaining education;
• 36,84% of the foundations are involved in protection of the environment and cultural aspects;
• 21,05% are involved in supporting health and education.
4.3. Types of Corporate Foundations according to their Mission
Three types of corporate foundations are identified by their mission as a planning tool:
• Corporate foundations that have a different mission from their company (63%);
• Corporate foundations that have a similar mission with the company (11%);
• Corporate foundations that have no declared mission (26%).
4.4. Stakeholders addressed
• In most of the cases (58% of corporate foundations) stakeholders are not clearly identified.

7. 5.Research Methodology
 The research question is whether corporate foundations have a role in
communicating corporate social responsibility towards stakeholders.
 In order to answer this question, several objectives are highlighted: (1) to
identify the context of the corporate foundation emergence, (2) to explore the
link between the corporate foundations and the sponsoring companies, (3) to
determine the role of corporate foundations in social responsibility
communication.
 In order to reach the objectives, an exploratory qualitative research is designed.
Two in-depth interviews with representatives of corporate foundations in
Romania are conducted. From within the 21 corporate foundations previously
identified, two accepted to participate to the interviews. The interviews ranged
from 45 minutes to one hour and a half in duration. The interview guide was
structured on three directions, in order to meet the objectives.

8. 6.Findings
6.1. The context of corporate foundations emergence
• To offer coherence to corporate social activities implemented by the funding company and to
have a responsible person to deal with specific targets. The second foundation was based to
fulfil employees’ expectations. It develops programs to change the mentality regarding
domestic abuse, and to offer support to its victims, sponsorships, cause-related marketing
campaigns (focused on health area), communication about CSR activities to company`s
employees.
6.2. The liaison between corporate foundations and sponsoring companies
• The first corporate foundation has a board of directors that changes periodically and its
members are companies` top management employees. As for the communication regarding
CSR activities, both foundations use the Internet, e-mail and internal newsletters. The role of
the first corporate foundation is to take over the company`s CSR activities and to offer
consistency and congruity with the marketing strategy. Corporate foundation strategy
follows the same path as the company`s strategy, but this is more flexible depending upon
the context, needs and partners involved in the campaigns.
6.3. The role of corporate foundations in CSR communication
• The representative of the first foundation suggested that the company communicates the
values and mission through its corporate foundation, using the press release as a tool of
informing stakeholders. The stakeholders are diversified, depending on the specificity of the
program implemented. Employees are the most relevant stakeholders for the foundations.
The foundations use a personalized communication with each group of stakeholders
(Internet, newsletter, or intranet).

9. 7.Conclusion
• From the top 200 companies, only 9.5% use
corporate foundations as a way of communicating
about CSR activities;
• Most of the corporate foundations are supporting
social causes, and their mission is distinctive from
the sponsoring company one;
• Corporate foundations are based in order to give
coherence to CSR activities or to fulfil
stakeholders` expectations;
• Corporate foundations are mainly communicating
the CSR activities internally, towards
employees, through newsletters or Intranet.

10. Thank you!
Q&A Session
alinstancu@mk.ase.ro
georgiana.grigore@advisory.ro