Social Responsibility: A Startup Guide

You’ve likely heard about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in one form or another. Initiatives like Starbucks pledging to donate 50 million meals by the year 2020 or Toms one-for-one mission where a pair of shoes is donated for every pair bought are well-known examples of social responsibility in action.

Over the past decade, CSR has become more important than ever before. Consumers believe that when they use a product or service of a socially responsible company, they are doing their part. The more socially responsible the company, the more supportive the community and consumers become. But CSR isn’t just important for brand awareness or driving consumers. How a business conducts itself, ethically speaking, can change the trajectory of success — including its ability to attract top talent.

If fact, it’s a crucial component of attracting Millennials, with 86% of the generation considering it a priority to work for a business that conducts itself ethically and responsibly. Not to mention, most are willing to take a considerable pay cut to work for such a business. This may just be one generation but think about this. By 2025, roughly 75% of the global workforce will be Millennials. The corporate cultures of most large organizations will be directly shaped by this generation’s habits and expectations

Hence, the value of social responsibility.

Of course, if you’re a startup you’re probably facing financial challenges that come with getting off the ground. In this case, it’s easy to view socially responsible initiatives as a daunting task or even a luxury reserved for larger corporations — after all, there are so many elaborate and wonderful initiatives out there. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

With startups in mind, Embroker, put together this comprehensive guide that outlines how to integrate business ethics and social responsibility at the startup stage. It covers topics like how to prioritize social responsibility, how to give back when you’re a startup on a budget and examples of companies who’ve done it best.

For example, they outline six ways to give back on a startup budget:

1. Start with making internal changes. 

Sometimes the easiest way to execute social responsibility is making changes within your company/organization. Can you make changes to your internal startup culture by implementing flexible hours, catered lunches, or other non-traditional perks for your employees? In which people have flexible hours, healthy catered lunches, permission to bring their dogs to work, and a wide variety of perks that fall outside traditional workspace norms.

 This may be stereotypical of a startup culture or young workplace but, but what this does is cultivate a strong culture where empathy and awareness of social impacts are top of mind. This can be a powerful tool for building a commitment to other aspects of social responsibility later on down the line.

2. Look at what your immediate community needs

Sometimes, just figuring out where to even get started can feel overwhelming, especially when there are endless ways to get involved in social responsibility.

Try taking this on at a small scale by helping out where your community needs assistance. Maybe it’s volunteering at a local shelter or organizing a beach cleanup. These types of small scale opportunities are a great way to be socially responsible and only cost your time.

3. Start small and ask for help

In other words, lean on the larger community to execute socially responsible initiatives. Maybe you want to organize an event to raise money for charity, but you don’t have the resources. Try asking a local venue to donate their space, a local restaurant to donate food and people from your business to help with logistics. Again, all that takes is time.

4. Lay the groundwork for a sustainable supply chain

If you're a product-based business that deals with manufacturing, this one is for you. Make ethical choices in your supply chain: consider where materials are sourced from, how they’re made and manufactured.

5. Get your board of directors on board with your initiatives

If you’re a startup that’s acquired VC funding, then it will be important to get your investors and board of directors on board with your initiatives. This may seem like a daunting task since these individuals holding the purse strings want to understand the business impacts of CSR initiatives. But if you can build a case as to why this supports your company and it’s the bottom line, and it’s their job to be laser-focused on returns, you might just get their blessing — and maybe even a budget.

6. Give volunteered time off (VTO)

Again, being socially responsible doesn’t have to cost money. Maybe you don’t have a budget or board of investors, but you can offer uptime volunteering.

VTO works just like paid time off. You give employees paid days off to provide volunteer services of their choice. This could even grow into a company-wide effort where you collectively choose an organization and take a company-wide VTO day.

To learn more about ways to apply socially responsible initiatives at the startup stage, check out their complete ethics and social responsibility guide.