How do you see the role and responsibility of local business – and big business – in community development goals?  Can business and community both do better together?  At the Community Economic Development conference on 20 Aoril 2011 one organisation on the presenters list stood out.  Would you expect a major retail bank to be presenting on Community Enterprise?

Many businesses have an interest in mutually beneficial connections with community.  Through our connection with Tamarack, an Institute for Community Engagement in Canada, we’ve seen many examples of business working with community and wanting to better understand how to contribute to community.  Here are a few links:

• Canadian Business for Social Responsibility website http://www.cbsr.ca/resources/cbsr-publications
• A Responsible Business Convention has just been held in Canada, facilitated by Business in the Community a charity focused on sustainability and people as well as profitable business. See videos from the convention at the BITC website. http://www.bitc.org.uk/events/responsible_business_convention_2011/index.html
• Canada’s Business Community Anti Poverty Initiative was formed by a group of business leaders who were concerned about the level of poverty in Saint John, N.B. and wanted to do something to help. They believe poverty can be substantially reduced if the community’s leadership focuses on this common goal and works with all sectors to achieve change. To this end they contribute business leadership, skills and resources to specific community efforts that help children, youth and young families achieve their full potential.

In June Tamarack Director Mark Cabaj will be in New Zealand for Inspiring Communities' annual Learning Forum with our core learning cluster communities.  Opportunities may also be available for workshops – email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested.

What about in New Zealand?

In February a major report was released by the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development which discussed how business can play a greater role in setting priorities for New Zealand’s social investment spending.  An important finding also was that businesses engage with community and with Corporate Social Responsibility primarily because they believe “it’s the right thing to do”.

The NZBCSD, which includes some of NZ’s largest businesses, says business’ involvement in the community “can be significantly leveraged to help deliver a more prosperous society”.

The report says the Government is spending about 75% of the $43 billion a year social sector spending on “social protection”, providing income support and services for those unable to look after themselves. But business should join the Government and not for profit groups to help develop and implement “social investment” policies.

And it highlights how business and not-for-profits can work together:

“...Business has experience in taking solutions to scale, and creating self-funded models by first finding out what works and then making it the normal process with flexibility to respond to localised variations across New Zealand. NFPs are very good at identifying needs and can find localised solutions but may struggle to get to a national scale.  Business wants to help but its capacity to provide financial support decreases in recessions, as profits fall just when the need is often greatest.  The ways business meets the challenges of operating and sustaining profitable outcomes in a downturn are common to the NFP sector – critical learnings can be shared between the business and NFP sectors.”

The full report can be read online: How to leverage business – community engagement for a more prosperous society. http://www.nzbcsd.org.nz/story.asp?StoryID=1272 

The report is not news to Westpac which has a local operating model, as part of its commitment to local communities and economies. Two Westpac representatives are presenting at the CED conference this week:

Ian Leader, Community Engagement Manager at Westpac NZ and Graham Paterson, Head of Sustainability and Community at Westpac Group have interesting perspective to share on how one big business is “acting local” and giving real focus to their role as a key player in local economies.

Below we have reflections from the first day of the CED Conference, and will look to share more next month.   We would like to discuss this topic of business engagement with the community further in the near future – watch this space and we welcome your comments.