Financial education and social responsibility: a win-win relationship between the company and its environment

The traditional conception of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is in the process of being reconsidered. First thought up by Public Relations departments, nowadays leading companies are fully aware that CSR is far more than an investment on reputation and social brand building, as important as it may be. Beyond that goal, CSR is the cornerstone of a win-win relationship that can only be beneficial for all the parties involved.

With all due respect to Mr. Ortega y Gasset, companies are themselves… and their circumstances. A firm cannot work and survive in isolation from the social environment in which it operates. The soundness of surrounding circumstances is the foundation for sustained success. Stefan Schmidheiny, founder of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said: “There are not successful companies in failed societies”. But, since it is not possible to tackle every area of improvement at the same time, where should CSR efforts be ideally focused?

Complexity of corporate framework provides companies with the opportunity of choosing between a wide range of possible fields for CSR actions, according to their needs and preferences: environmental preservation, education and social progress, art and culture, etc. But it is good to remember that the more connected to people’s needs, concerns and realities, the more productive those initiatives will be.

At this moment, impact of global crisis on households’ budget has highlighted, more than ever, the widespread lack of financial literacy. Individuals’ feelings of uncertainty and fear for the future are influencing in a significant way the usual patterns of financial behavior. The changes in savings, consumption and investment habits can make it more difficult to overcome crisis in some markets and business sectors. In this situation, both private companies and public agencies and institutions are equally concerned about the need of developing effective financial education initiatives.

In our next posts we’ll talk about the news, trends and approaches of CSR focused on financial education. We encourage our readers to participate by posting comments or suggesting any topic of your interest.