What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

The objectives of sponsoring and CSR are generally very similar. Therefore,
experiences with the communication tool sponsoring proven in the practice definitely
give some indication about the relatively new approaches of CSR. Advocates of CSR
commonly cite arguments which are traditionally associated with the goals of
sponsoring:
� Increased name recognition of companies and brands
� Creation, change and stabilisation of images
� Public relations within the meaning of relationship management
� Performance demonstration
� Employee motivation
These days, redistributions of parts of the sponsoring budget in favour of CSR
activities of a company are more commonly observed on the market. In addition,
some companies are also renaming their sponsoring activities. For example, the
globally active company Siemens has coined the term "Corporate Cultural
Responsibility" for its involvement in the arts. This cannot only be understood as an
allusion to the term "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)", but additionally
highlights the blurring of the line between common welfare-oriented sponsoring,
corporate citizenship and CSR.
In the past several years, the considerations about ethics in sponsoring have been
gaining increasing importance. The independence of the social areas which the
sponsoring is having an impact on is the object of some scientists. Ethicists
emphasise that it is precisely the independent values and qualities of sports, culture,
social projects, education, science and ecology that have made sponsoring attractive
for companies in the past. If the interference by sponsors is too strong, it would
invalidate this mutual interface.
Exercise 6.3. (approximately 45 minutes)
Ask your participants to work with a partner to draft a letter within 30 minutes, in
which they respond to a sponsoring inquiry for a social project. The project concerns
the "Homeless World Cup", the international street soccer tournament of the
homeless and socially disadvantaged. The organisation in charge is planning to
organise the games in your country. It has issued inquiries to a number of companies
in which the organisation is requesting a meeting to negotiate with the company.
The teams of 2 are asked to explain in their letter to the "Homeless World Cup" if and
why they would like to accept the visit from the organisation. In addition, they are
asked to describe to what extent and with which expected services in return they are
planning to act as sponsor or promoter. To ensure that the exercise represents
controversial opinions, you may ask your teams to split in half. Then you ask half of
the teams to formulate a rejection letter. The other half of the teams is asked to
accept the invitation to negotiate.
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
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InnoTrain CSR
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