Corporate Social Responsibility
=mc is a socially engaged business. As part of that we are committed to a programme of Corporate Social Responsibility. This approach has been part of the =mc philosophy from the start. For example the very first =mc cheque ever written was to the ANC in 1988 when it was still a proscribed organisation.
The programme has a number of elements:
- Donations
- Staff contributions
- Support for causes
- Donating equipment
- Pro-bono work
- Awards and prizes
- Environmental responsibility
- Ethical sourcing, local economic development and fair trade
- Access and diversity
Donations
We make donations to a number of charities – and balance radical and ‘unpopular' causes with those closer to the mainstream. In the last 3 years we made significant donations to organisations as diverse as Macmillan Cancer Support, Amnesty International, Oxfam, Comic Relief, and the Disasters Emergency Committee. We also donated the prize =mc's directors received for their book Breakthrough Thinking, which won ‘best non-profit book in the USA’, to the Dafur emergency.
Staff contributions
=mc staff have also directly contributed to a number of appeals. We made a special effort for the Tsunami appeal in 2005. Staff contributed a day’s salary which was matched by the company. This raised over £3,000.
Support for causes
Money is not enough. =mc supports and endorses a number of causes which we believe are important to social justice. In 2005 we decided to make Poverty in Africa a key issue. Staff also take part in Mission Mondays when we visit an organisation to understand its work better.
Donating equipment
We donate equipment, especially computers, to community organisations. In the past we’ve done this for small arts organisations and schools. Changes in Health and Safety concerns have made this more difficult for schools, so we are now looking at other sources who might use them or know how to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way.
Pro-bono work
We provide staff to carry out pro-bono work – mostly in the fields of fundraising training and management consultancy and mostly in Africa and South America. This work is primarily to build local capacity and competency in NGOs. We've worked on a pro-bono basis on at least 10 occasions in locations as diverse as Uganda, Peru, Namibia and Baltimore. Trainers and consultants do this on top of their normal workload.
Awards and prizes
We support two awards and prizes currently. One is the Beto Viesca Prize for Young Fundraising Leaders. This awarded annually to a fundraiser under 30 working for a UK NGO. It is in memory of a great =mc friend Beto Viesca, Vice Chancellor of UDEM University in Monterrey, Mexico. The prize offers a free place at the world’s largest fundraising conference in the USA. We also support the Guy Stringer Bursary Fund which provides free places for delegates from developing countries at the International Fundraising Congress in Holland.
Environmental responsibility
We are currently working to offset our carbon footprint. All =mc staff have signed up to an internal 'green charter' which contains guidelines on reducing our impact on the environment. Our practices include:
- Purchasing office products from sustainable or environmentally friendly sources, e.g. pencils made from recycled plastic cups
- Sourcing and using ISO140001 printers
- Re-using plastic bags
- Re-using paper for internal notebooks
- Printing double-sided
- Using recyclable bags for our own recycling
- Using watercoolers attached to the main water supply
- Using portable coffee mugs in cafes instead of disposables
We actively discourage the use of cars by =mc staff, and have a practical commitment to recycling paper which has resulted in saving a modest 6 trees in the last year.
Ethical sourcing, local economic development and fairtrade
We buy fairly traded products – especially tea and coffee, biscuits and chocolate – whenever possible. We prioritise business links with companies who themselves are committed to ethical sourcing and practice – for example we use the Cooperative Bank as a way of ensuring our business success doesn’t benefit unethical companies.
Finally we seek small suppliers who share our ethical values, such as our graphic designers who donate their profits to a mental health charity, Core Arts.
Access and diversity
We ensure all our staff understand and are trained in disability awareness. We also do our best to accomodate any specific requirements of our customers such as large print documents or a hearing loop. This is so our services are accessible to all.
This could make us all a bit worthy and dull. Or it could simply mean that we do cool stuff in our work and match our business practices to our ethics.
